— by WILLIAM STERR — Nothing like a vacation with a couple you’ve known for years … especially if they’ve brought along their two darling, rambunctious kids. That’s probably what went through the minds of Ben and Margaret as they arranged with Ellie and Thomas to rent adjoini[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Where the Crawdads Sing
— by WILLIAM STERR — This is a film adaptation of the 2018 hit novel of the same name, written by Delia Owens. The novel features two story-lines, one of a young girl, abandoned by her family and brutal father and self-raised in the marshes of coastal North Carolina. The second story lin[...]
Review: White Noise
— by WILLIAM STERR — Academia! That ivory tower where esoteric thought and meaningless, endless conversation about nothing substitutes for real life. If the words are big enough, the problems are made small enough. At least at the “College on the Hill.” This is the world we are tempo[...]
Review: Bad Axe
— by BEV QUESTAD — During the genocidal days of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Chun Siev, ran for days through crossfire with his mother and five siblings to freedom in Thailand. At a Red Cross camp, they are asked where they want to go. His mother, Sing Mo Siev, firmly says, “The United[...]
Review: Those Who Call
— by WILLIAM STERR — It’s only a few days into 2023 and things are already headed for the drain. Wars rage on, famine increases, chaos reigns in the House of Representatives and, worst of all, I just sat through “Those Who Call.” This Opus Minus by writer/director Anubys Lopez (“[...]
Review: Retrograde
— by BEV QUESTAD — Here we are, riding along with the Afghan general, Sami Sadat, being notified we are the target of a suicide bomber – right now! The car is driving wildly in and out of a protective caravan – the only defense maneuver possible. At other times, we are right in the [[...]
Review: A Man Called Otto
— by BEV QUESTAD — “The whole neighborhood is falling apart these days,” intones a fed-up Otto (Tom Hanks) to his wife’s gravestone. As a matter of fact, he plans to join her soon. Suicide is the antidote for his grief. So, as soon as he retires from his job and no longer has respo[...]
Review: Corsage
— by WILLIAM STERR — This 2022 film, Austria’s Foreign Language entry to the Academy Awards, is the (highly) fictionalized account of a brief period in the life of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. Not only is it a fictionalized account covering the years 1877 and 187[...]
Review: Taming the Garden
— by BEV QUESTAD — There’s no narration to this doc verite. Overheard voices can be heard, but this is basically the silent story about transplanting a beautiful tree from a spot in rural Georgia, a nation of diverse geology and topography on Turkey’s border to the north. “Taming t[...]
Review: Hidden Letters
— by BEV QUESTAD — The film opens with soft, Monet-like pastoral landscapes around a Chinese village and progresses to clips of modern city life is Shanghai. These scenes represent the history of the secret script of Nushu, a language used during the old days of China when women’s feet[...]
Review: Nothing Compares
— by BEV QUESTAD — After Sinead O’Connor ripped a picture of Pope John Paul II’s picture on SNL in 1992 and announced, “Fight the real enemy,” I just chalked it up to a celebrity desperately craving notoriety. I had no idea she was protesting child abuse within the Catholic Churc[...]
Review: A Piece of Sky (aka Drii Winter)
— by BEV QUESTAD — It’s not a happy film and at times it moves too slowly. How long can we look at a chairlift? But “A Piece of Sky” does deal with a mammoth issue that I’ll politely refer to in general as mental illness. What do you do when your partner, your spouse, […][...]
Review: Ticket to Paradise
— by BEV QUESTAD — Thank you – Thank you – Thank you George Clooney and Julia Roberts for giving us such a fun film! It is a feast of enjoyment! David and Georgia Cotton are divorced but find themselves seated next to each other at their only daughter’s graduation. They hat[...]