— by BEV QUESTAD — The biographical story of Emily Dickinson, “A Quiet Passion” is one of the 166 films being shown Feb. 9 to 25 as part of the 40th annual Portland International Film Festival. Cynthia Nixon excels as Dickinson and deserves tremendous credit for her performance in Te[...]
Author Archive
Review: The Draft and the Vietnam Generation
— by BEV QUESTAD — Here are a couple hypothetical questions for you. If this were 1968 and you were of draft age, would you volunteer to fight in Vietnam? If you were of conscription age today, would you volunteer to fight in Syria or any other country our President might send our army? [...]
Review: A Month of Sundays
— by BEV QUESTAD — “A Month of Sundays” is a slo-mo blossom unfurling its developing petals into an eventual multi-layered, delicately shaded glorious bloom of uncommon beauty. Writer-director Matthew Saville has delivered this fragrant corsage set in a cinematic environment [...]
Review: The Daughter
— by BEV QUESTAD — Edvard Munch did not paint just one version of “The Scream.” He painted four. His essential Norwegian character cannot avert his eyes from life’s true circumstance and man’s grotesque nature within it. He chooses not to fabricate an illusion to help disguise th[...]
Review: SMART
— by BEV QUESTAD — If an animal is up a tree, down a sewer pipe, over a cliff, or stuck in ocean quicksand, who do you call? In LA, it is SMART, the Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team for Los Angeles Animal Services. I told myself, “Don’t watch it!” — sure this documentary[...]
Review: On The Map
— by BEV QUESTAD — When depressed in a dark hole with enemies lurking on all sides, what’s the best antidote? Distraction. Though she had been repeatedly attacked and even though her very existence was entangled in the frozen core of the Cold War conflict, Israel’s people were still [...]
Review: Kate Plays Christine
— by BEV QUESTAD — While one reviewer states “this movie is artistic suicide,” another thinks it is ground-breaking. Based on the bizarre on-air 1974 suicide of news host Christine Chubbuck, the film follows Kate Lyn Sheil’s preparation for the movie role. She goes through news arc[...]
Review: Generation Found
— by BEV QUESTAD — “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light,” noted Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate, Jackie Kennedy’s second husband and father who lost his son. These words are also scripted, decorated and pinned on the wall by a student at A[...]
Review: The Anonymous People
— by BEV QUESTAD — There is an adage that if you expose your secrets and bring them to light, they will fade and die. However, if you keep your secrets hidden in the darkness they will grow and multiply. So it is that the one group in America that prided itself on secrecy and […][...]
Review: Miss Hokusai
— by BEV QUESTAD — A big “Oh My!” goes to the production company and director of this beautifully rendered animation on the life of the most famous Japanese painter of all time. However, I’ll tell you right now that after watching this film, I spent about four hours on the internet[...]
Review: After Spring
— by BEV QUESTAD — There are three things to know before you see this film. First, Jon Stewart, past host of “The Daily Show,” is the executive producer, so expect a documentary with integrity. Second, one man, Charles Lee, knows the fundamental problem in refugee camps, so expect a [...]
Review: Tanna
— by BEV QUESTAD — Based on a true Romeo and Juliet story, this tale of dangerous, forbidden love takes place on Tanna, one of the lush Vanuatu jungle islands in the South Pacific. Tradition rules that girls must marry outside their tribe, but Wawa and Dain, members of the same tribe, se[...]
Review: Theo Who Lived
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Theo Who Lived” is a documentary about a quirky journalist who was tortured and prepared for death by hanging. He returns to re-trace his steps for this documentary, re-enacting his exhilarated run across the Turkey-Syrian border as well as the self-impose[...]
Review: Do Not Resist
— by BEV QUESTAD — Remember the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, protest for the police shooting of Michael Brown? Craig Atkinson, filmmaker and the son of a SWAT team officer and a participant in SWAT trainings, reveals that times are a-changing when it comes to police tactics and ideology thro[...]