— by BEV QUESTAD — The throne of the Holy See is vacant and beside the deathbed is a chess game in progress. “Conclave” has sweeping vistas of art, painstaking replicas of intricately embroidered Cardinal costumes, and one of the best all-time endings in the history of cinema. It is [...]
Author Archive
The 28TH OFCS Awards: Nominees & Winners
— by BEV QUESTAD — The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS), representing nearly 300 continually vetted online film journalists representing Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Slant, AARP and more, historians, and scholars worldwide, one-third based outside the US, announced the winners of i[...]
Review: The Substance
— by BEV QUESTAD — I am obsessed with my weight, aging, hair and wrinkled looks. I see my 75-year-old self in the mirror every morning, sometimes totally disgusted. I’m just being honest. I asked my best friend, Bill, if he did the same. “Oh yes,” he sadly confided. So, women aren[...]
Review: Black Box Diaries
— by BEV QUESTAD — Her parents told her to keep quiet. Her sister begged her not to mention it. The police warned her that her career would be over if she pursued her complaint. In Japan, when you don’t want someone to know something, when you want to keep something secret, you put it [...]
Review: Wicked
— by BEV QUESTAD — The last I heard, the Wicked Witch of the West (WWW) died after Dorothy, stuck in the Land of Oz, threw water on her and she melted. Dorothy, frustratingly stuck in Oz, ended up clicking her ruby red shoes and magically returning home to Kansas with her faithful dog, T[...]
Review: The Wild Robot
— by BEV QUESTAD — A group of robots end up crash-landing. One survives and, like Robinson Crusoe or the Swiss Family Robinson, must contend with the natural world of an uninhabited (by humans), untamed jungle/forest wilderness. However, since the robot, Roz, does not need to eat and gai[...]
Review: A Complete Unknown
— by BEV QUESTAD — My 47-year-old long-haired musician-adventurist son, James T, asked me to take him to “A Complete Unknown” on Christmas Day. Dylan represents my generation, but James claims him too. Four days prior, his band was rockin’ out with the crowd joining in, “Any day [...]
Review: Dahomey
— by BEV QUESTAD — The return of the treasures, the murmuring of the spirits and the new thinking of the people receiving the restitution make this documentary, in the top fifteen 2025 Oscar list, an eye-opener. We see an elegant dinner cruise on the electric ripples of the Seine long af[...]
Review: The Seed of the Sacred Fig
— by BEV QUESTAD — Secretly filmed in Iran, a dire intermix of state and religion is the threatening backdrop of the film’s story as well as the true-life, nerve-wracking environment for the film crew. Once a state is regarded as a manifestation of God’s will, laws, rules, and regula[...]
Review: Daughters
— by BEV QUESTAD — This tender film’s catapult to the 2025 Oscar Best Documentary Short List was not unexpected. “Duaghters” is an outstandingly poignant love story that reaches deep into our essential bond with our parents. When the bond is compromised, we instinctively want it re[...]
Review: Will & Harper
— by BEV QUESTAD — Oh boy, prepare yourselves for a ride like no other across America with Harper Steele, former head writer for “Saturday Night Live” (1995-2008), and Will Farrell, world-famous comedian, along with great songs like “America” (sung by First Aid Kit). Will[...]
Review: From Ground Zero
— by BEV QUESTAD — A snow-white fuzzy donkey is lovingly cared for in a small rustic corral. It is lucky to have enough food and water. Daily its owner hitches the donkey up to a flat-bed cart and rides around the remains of a dusty town, picking up and dropping off strangers and their [[...]
Review: Santosh
— by BEV QUESTAD — Santosh’s young husband, a second-year policeman noted for his integrity, is mercilessly killed in a riot he was called to quell. When Santosh goes to the station to collect his belongings, she learns she can inherit his position with the same salary. While this posi[...]