— by BEV QUESTAD — Fording rivers, climbing mountains, circling in a jungle, and hiking in the dark to evade capture, this long circuitous odyssey from North Korea through China to South Korea is what lucky North Koreans can expect to endure. For the unlucky it is betrayal by the broker,[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Veselka
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Jason Birchard has a hunger to feed people …” So intones narrator David Duchovny (“The X Files”), who himself has some Ukrainian ancestry, at the beginning of this documentary about a unique Ukrainian restaurant in New York City. The restaurant began a[...]
Review: Four Daughters
— by BEV QUESTAD — It was 2015 when Barack Obama approved the bombing of an Islamic terrorist center in Libya. Here, Noureddine Chouchane, a militant commander connected to two deadly attacks in neighboring Tunisia, was killed. Surviving were his wife and his wife’s sister. “Four Dau[...]
Review: The Peasants
— by WILLIAM STERR — Epic. That is the term the Nobel committee used in awarding Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924 for his novel, “The Peasants.” In 2023, the film version of “The Peasants” was released at various film festivals. It will be releas[...]
Review: Cold Meat
— by WILLIAM STERR — The story of the Wendigo is an enduring one that has been the basis of numerous films over the years. It appeared as a motivating character in Steven King’s 1983 novel “Pet Cemetery,” as the title character in numerous films, as the possessing spirit in Guiller[...]
Review: Nimona
— by BEV QUESTAD — Who’s bad, who’s good, and what’s the truth? These are life’s questions. But, as this film says, “If you want a happily ever after you are going to have to wait, because the monsters are always out there.” Isn’t that the truth? “Nimona” is an animatio[...]
Review: Vishniac
— by WILLIAM STERR — Imagine the breadth of a life that began before the end of the 19th century and lasted almost until the 21st. Further, imagine that life beginning in Czarist Russia, passing through Wiemar and then Nazi Germany, and ending in 1990 New York City. That was the life of [...]
Review: The Painter
— by WILLIAM STERR — Peter Barrett (Charlie Weber – “Panama”) was a CIA operative. He specialized in extra-legal killing of large numbers of other killers in order to carry out his missions. On one of these, he discovered that his wife, Elena (Rryla McIntosh – “Under Wr[...]
Review: Bad Hombres
— by WILLIAM STERR — Felix (Diego Tinoco – “Muzzle”) has finally made it to the US after a grueling – and expensive – trek from his native Uruguay. He meets his cousin, who’s already made it here, and together they go to seek work – Felix’s first step on a climb to im[...]
Review: American Symphony
— by BEV QUESTAD — This raw, intimate documentary reveals the most creative, versatile and eclectic musician of our time, Jon Batiste. From exposure to his personality on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” I was expecting a laid-back, fun, light-hearted guy. But his story runs mor[...]
Review: Double Down South
— by WILLIAM STERR — Mississippi. A state named after a river named by the Minnesotan Ojibwa Indians. The name means “Big River.” There is an adage in the South: “Thank God for Mississippi.” It refers to the fact that, in almost all listings of cultural attainments, Mississippi i[...]
Review: The Zone of Interest
— by WILLIAM STERR — The year is 1943. The place is Auschwitz, Poland. German SS officer Rudolph Hoss (Christian Friedel – “Babylon Berlin”) has been commandant of the concentration death camp since its creation in 1940, and has made extensive expansion and improvement in effic[...]
Review: Poor Things
— by WILLIAM STERR — If you have a chance to see this film, be prepared for a WILD ride! Professor Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe – “The Lighthouse”) is a ruin of a man – brilliant, but disfigured physically and worse by his insane scientist father. He invites one of his anatomy[...]