— by BEV QUESTAD — Why hasn’t “News of the World” hit the big time? Where are the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Best Movie and Best Actor? Tom Hanks plays Captain Kidd, a practical but tortured man who travels from town to town having lost all that is dear. An ex-minister [...]
Author Archive
Review: Nomadland
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Nomadland” is a minimalist presentation with no plot. What is boring is good, what is beautiful is barren, and what is desired is almost nothing. Is this Buddha in America? Of the more than 50 movies I chose to see for the 2020 film season, “Nomadland” was the[...]
Review: Stray
— by BEV QUESTAD — Imagine living as a stray dog in colorful Istanbul where dogs are treated even better than the sacred cows of India. Food scraps are thrown your way and people pet you as you trot by. The only trouble comes from your own kind. Mixed with sage quotes from the Greeks, [&[...]
Review: Hunger Ward
— by BEV QUESTAD — A cruel conflict in the poorest Gulf country has strafed a culture and its people with the assistance of the US since 2015. In America, it is called the War in Yemen or the Yemeni Civil War. In the Middle East, it is called the Saudi-American War. It took acclaimed [&h[...]
Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7
— by BEV QUESTAD — The 1968 chaotic August Democratic Convention was covered for CBS by famed journalist, Dan Rather, who was punched in the gut and assaulted by guards as he was trying to interview a convention delegate. The Vietnam War was raging, President Johnson had declined to run [...]
Review: Dick Johnson is Dead
— by BEV QUESTAD — The church is crowded enough and some in the pews recount memories. But after filming the service, it’s time to remove the casket. It’s then that the film crew notices that Dick Johnson has fallen asleep inside it. “Dick Johnson is Dead” is a zany, unexpected d[...]
Review: The Dissident
— by BEV QUESTAD — When a master who-done-it is also a master documentary, a gripping film of uncommon depth is born. Triple genre’d as crime, thriller, and documentary, “The Dissident” is a courageous film that you’d normally predict as an Academy Award Winner. But suspiciously,[...]
Review: Time
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Time” starts when Sibil Fox Richardson, aka Fox Rich, and Robert Richardson fall in love, get married, buy a house, and rob a bank. When hardship came, so did this crazy, inexplicable decision to rob a bank to pay for their expenses. On top of it all, at the time [...]
Review: Promising Young Woman
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is a first. I do not recommend the film I voted to receive the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) Award for Best Film shown in 2020. “Promising Young Woman,” shot in a remarkably short 23 days, has award-winning acting and a stunning script. The director has p[...]
Review: My Darling Vivian
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is a documentary about Vivian, the first wife of Johnny Cash, created by her children. “My Darling Vivian” rounds out the nature of Cash, first depicted in “Walk the Line,” as a world-famous singer with regrets over the family he betrayed. A masterful docu[...]
Review: Born to Be
— by BEV QUESTAD — We hear a sonorous double bass. The deep sounds come in a tremulous, low awe switching to multi-faceted activity and diversity. As the film continues, we learn that the Julliard musician has another practice that parallels his daily music regimen perfecting the Bach su[...]
Review: A La Calle
— by BEV QUESTAD — Filming this documentary was as dangerous as being a subject in what was being filmed. Bullets had to be dodged and raw footage had to be periodically smuggled back to the US. Just to be named in the credits earns exile if not prison and brutal retaliation. This is the[...]
Review: Duty Free
— by BEV QUESTAD — It’s Boston and Rebecca is the head housekeeper for an inn facing hard times. Her one-bedroom apartment, where she has raised two boys, is above the inn and part of an employment package arranged around 50 years ago. At 75 years of age, she has spunk, energy and driv[...]
Review: Wine and War
— by BEV QUESTAD — I drank my first Lebanese wine, a 1968 Ksara red, in 1970 during the early days of the Lebanese Civil War. I still have the wine labels, pressed and mounted. It was a smooth, hardy wine that was cheaper than beer – maybe $1.50 a bottle. Now, there is a […][...]