— by BEV QUESTAD — Wild Creature meets Tinkerbell in pastoral faux Germany during a murder investigation. Beginning with a deep “Ommmm” beset with cacophonous sounds, “Ich Hunger” delivers an expressionist tableau of foolery and macabre. Experimental camera tricks abound, especia[...]
Author Archive
Review: Noah
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Noah” is a remarkable interpretation of The Great Flood and a fitting choice to open during Lent, a time of repentance and ultimate rebirth. It is all about dying and rising. We sleep, we wake. We fail, try again, and rise. Nature abounds in this cycle and it is t[...]
2014 PIFF Results
— by BEV QUESTAD — The 2014 Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) Alaska Airlines Audience Awards have been announced. This year PIFF screened 104 features and 24 shorts from countries around the world. A few were nominees for the 2014 Oscars, but most you’ve never heard of. Do I[...]
Review: Remote Area Medical
— by BEV QUESTAD — Screened at the 2014 Portland International Film Festival, “Remote Area Medical” (RAM) is a Doctors Without Borders kind of international medical/dental/optical service. Volunteers go in for a three-day weekend and serve everyone who shows up. Its inaugural mission[...]
Review: The Autobiography of Karl Krogstad
— by BEV QUESTAD — Reminiscent of Steve Allen’s bizarre comedy of the 1960s, the wacko, surreal Karl Krogstad has created a film about himself. It is a little narcissistic, but so chalked up with images, metaphors and color, that audiences will either hurt from two solid hours of broad[...]
Review: Ilo Ilo
— by BEV QUESTAD — Dennis the Menace meets Mary Poppins in Singapore. Well, Dennis is spot-on but the sweet Filipino young lady who comes to be a servant in this household has her hands full. Set in Singapore circa 1997 during an economic crisis, Teresa is the new household maid (played [...]
Review: Ernest and Celestine
— by BEV QUESTAD — A cute little mouse, Celestine, wants to be an artist, not a dentist like expected. Mice, you know, are partial to their crucial incisors and value the health of their teeth. Therefore their society is built around the dental arts, including procuring spare incisors fr[...]
Review: Village at the End of the World
— by BEV QUESTAD — Though the sun shines, biting wind brushes through the air, icebergs loom like monoliths from the bay, and temperatures don’t get too far beyond freezing. This is Sequinnerpoq, the summer season when the sun shines. The little Inuit fishing village, Niaqornat, nestle[...]
Review: Just a Sigh
— by BEV QUESTAD — Working out an interpretation of Blaise Pascal’s theme on happiness, filmmaker Jérome Bonnell gives us 24 hours, beginning and ending with a ride on a train. Gabriel Byrne is perfectly cast as the interesting older man. Coming in from England to Paris for the funera[...]
Review: A World Not Ours
— by BEV QUESTAD — Screened at this year’s Portland International Film Festival, “A World Not Ours” was Lebanon’s entry into the 2014 Oscar competition for best film in a Foreign Language. It’s all about the 64-year-old Ain El Helweh refugee camp for Palestinians in southern Le[...]
Review: Mary, Queen of Scots
— by BEV QUESTAD — Many will flock to see “Mary Queen of Scots” with its dark and musty castles, mist-shrouded gentle landscapes and richly-colored costumes. Swiss filmmaker Thomas Imbach, with multiple writers, has idealized Mary as a romantic figure from Elizabethan times, truly mo[...]
Review: I Am Yours (aka Jeg er din)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Norway’s entry for consideration for a 2014 Oscar didn’t make the final cut, and when you see it, you’ll know why. A pretty single mother, Mina is starved for love and affection but has no idea how to get it. Soon enough, a man begins a flirtation on the street [[...]
Review: The Galapagos Affair
— by BEV QUESTAD — Ever get so disgusted with the government that you would like to branch out, so to speak, to your own uninhabited island? This is the way it was in 1929 for two Germans, Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch. They were totally disillusioned with society, calling it “a hu[...]
Review: The Wind Rises
— by BEV QUESTAD — The 86th Oscar nominations have bravely, and rightly, fingered “The Wind Rises” as one of five works for Best Animated Film. At home in Japan, the film opened with overwhelming success and abrupt, surprising controversy. The same will happen here if it wins for bes[...]