— by BEV QUESTAD — “Sri Lanka seems to be cursed. For 30 years it has endured a brutal and seemingly endless ethnic civil war.” These are the words of a beautiful Norwegian journalist, Beate Arnestad, as she rides undercover through checkpoints skirting a fenced-in area of Tamils [...]
Author Archive
Review: Special Flight (aka Vol spécial)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Throughout the third world, there is the class of people who work incredible hours at incredibly demanding jobs who don’t get paid a living wage. They live like squatters with make-shift flimsy walls to cover a bed or mat. There is no education for their children and[...]
Review: Bitter Seeds
— by BEV QUESTAD — He leverages his land to buy seeds, fertilizer and pesticides. Bugs infest his crops. His harvest is meager. He can’t pay enough dowry for his daughter’s marriage. Suicide peeks out as a pretty popular response. Every 30 minutes, a farmer in India kills himself. Mo[...]
Review: Colour of the Ocean
— by IAN McDANIEL — In a brilliant clash between morality and legality, German director Maggie Peren has created a film about two Senegalese refugees, a father and son, who arrive in the Canary Islands attempting to escape the crushing poverty of Senegal. At 95 minutes long, this heart-w[...]
Trailer: War Witch (aka Rebelle)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Conjuring aggression and beguilement, death and trickery, survival and provocative bedevilment, this great title headlines the most important film venue of the year, the 2012 Human Rights Watch Film Festival (HRWFF). Opening night of the festival will feature the[...]
Review: Two Brothers
— by BEV QUESTAD — Insightful, candid, honest and absolutely groundbreaking, this documentary reveals two brothers’ challenges, triumphs and personal growth through 5000 days. When they are young they are in conflict. Luke says about Sam, “I don’t like him.” But as time and life [...]
Review: To the Arctic
— by BEV QUESTAD — Narration by Meryl Streep, music by Paul McCartney, scenery in the Arctic and production by IMAX filmmakers = fabulously unforgettable cinematic experience. The headlining event for the kick-off to the 2012 Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) Film Festival was[...]
Review: The Lady
— by BEV QUESTAD — Critics be tarred, feathered, hung and shot. Of the 150 films I have reviewed in the last three years, I have given few rave reviews, but “The Lady” would be in those top three. The reason is simple – it’s an important story about principle, sacrifice a[...]
Trailer: The Lady
— by BEV QUESTAD — History and current events have collided in the last weeks with the coincidental release of Aung San Suu Kyi from 15 years of house arrest in Myanmar (Burma) and the film about her life — “The Lady.” As the world now knows, Suu Kyi left Burma and even[...]
Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
— by BEV QUESTAD — I am Lisbeth … Lisbeth Salander. I was created by Stieg Larsson and transferred to celluloid by Niels Oplev. Then Daniel Alfredson. Then David Fincher. Why did anyone think they could be successful at this? The Cast In Oplev and Alfredson’s versions I was portrayed[...]
Review: Gerhard Richter Painting
— by BEV QUESTAD — He takes three colors — red, blue and yellow — and stripes them in arcs and jutting angles onto a large canvass. Beautiful balance, natural primary colors. Simple and elegant. Then he spreads bright yellow paint onto a long wedge, as if buttering the length[...]
Review: Red Desert (aka Il Deserto Rosso)
— by BEV QUESTAD — Forget about the name of this film. Maybe it refers to communism, global warming, anomie or the red-headed lead character, Giuliana. Michelangelo Antonioni, a classic art film director with ambitions nearly as great as his first name, once said he just gave it a random[...]
Review: A Separation
— by BEV QUESTAD — Bravo to Iran for winning the coveted Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with a brave, insightful study of the human condition. At first, because of the headscarves and trenchant males, the viewer might be tut-tutting that this is just how we expected Iran to[...]
Review: Rocco and His Brothers
— by BEV QUESTAD — Four brothers with their shrew of a mother have left their farm and traveled to the big city of Milan to surprise and move in with the older, newly-engaged fifth son. Surprise, surprise. “Rocco and his Brothers,” renowned as perfection in cinema, begins with artist[...]