— by BEV QUESTAD — Jim Denevan walks dragging a rake on a smooth beach. He makes perfect circles over and over in uncannily perfect geometric patterns that can only be captured aerially by photo or video. I don’t see him using a protractor. Then the surf comes in and wipes it all away.[...]
Author Archive
Review: Jungle Cruise
— by BEV QUESTAD — Lily believes an old legend about a healing tree deep in the Amazon jungle. She is certain the properties of this tree could reshape medicine and be especially beneficial to Britain’s armed service during WWI. There is one caveat. If the tree “gets into the wrong h[...]
Review: Newtok
— by BEV QUESTAD — As the permafrost continues to thaw due to climate change, the Alaskan Yup’ik people in Newtok have created boardwalks and bulkheads to adapt to the dissolving ground and steadily encroaching river and sea waters. Their despair and poverty grow as their land fades aw[...]
Review: Passing
— by BEV QUESTAD — “All of us are just passing for something or other, aren’t we?” Irene muses rhetorically. As the crack in her ceiling spreads out, the howling wind gets stronger and snow begins to fall. The exquisite cinematography enhances this important story about race and id[...]
Review: Simple as Water
— by BEV QUESTAD — Yasmin stands on the cement walkway at a sea port in Athens with her four children. They are chasing a balloon and each other. She carefully monitors them and then herds them into their tent under the freeway overpass. Here she gets out her cell phone and lets them see[...]
Review: The Real Charlie Chaplin
— by BEV QUESTAD — The great irony is that Charlie Chaplin and his films were received enthusiastically and sympathetically before WWII and as communistic and unpatriotic after. Initially wildly popular throughout the world, “The Real Charlie Chaplin” details the man behind his chara[...]
Review: The Rossellinis
— by BEV QUESTAD — Roberto Rossellini was a famous director in Italy, but in the end, it is the haunting “Casablanca” star Ingrid Bergman, whom he married in 1950, that made his personal life international news and this film, “The Rossellinis,” mandatory viewing. Roberto Rosselli[...]
Review: Pig
— by BEV QUESTAD — Robin Feld (Nicolas Cage) and his delightful hairy pig are living in a rustic cabin in the Mt. Hood forest where bushy ferns and moist dirt hide truffles that grow in the root systems of the tall Douglas fir trees. Oregon truffles can sell for $600 to 5,000 a pound. [&[...]
Review: Gaza Mon Amour
— by BEV QUESTAD — This could be a sweet story of a 60-year-old bachelor who is smitten by a woman around his age. He attempts to court her, but doesn’t really know what to do except wear too much men’s cologne. Endearingly shy, their stilted encounters and attempts to communicate fa[...]
Review: Adventures of a Mathematician
— by BEV QUESTAD — “The Adventures of a Mathematician” is based on the autobiography of a Polish-Jewish scientist, Stanislaw Ulam, who refused to go to that fateful atomic test in the hot July desert south of Los Alamos in 1945. Already arguing with Edward Teller regarding the feasib[...]
Review: Storm Lake
— by BEV QUESTAD — I want to sit across the table from Art Cullen at the Better Day Cafe in Storm Lake, Iowa. I want to talk about the danger of news deserts, the difficulties of investigative journalism, and what he thinks about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for president. I also want to hav[...]
Review: Ascension (aka 登楼叹)
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Foreign position with dorm living, air conditioning and $2.99 per hour! You can sit. Easiest work you can find – making new phone products!” announces a job recruiter at an employment station in China. Jessica Kingdon, a Chinese-American director/producer, h[...]
Review: Fathom
— by BEV QUESTAD — Can whales replicate sounds we introduce electronically? Could an electronic device mimic whale speech and eventually get involved in a conversation? “Fathom” documents the communication efforts of two separate studies, one in Alaska and one in French Polynesia. Dr[...]