— by BEV QUESTAD — “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light,” noted Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate, Jackie Kennedy’s second husband and father who lost his son. These words are also scripted, decorated and pinned on the wall by a student at A[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: The Anonymous People
— by BEV QUESTAD — There is an adage that if you expose your secrets and bring them to light, they will fade and die. However, if you keep your secrets hidden in the darkness they will grow and multiply. So it is that the one group in America that prided itself on secrecy and […][...]
Review: National Bird
— by RON WILKINSON — Following on the heels of Guy Hibbert’s screenplay for “Eye in the Sky” (directed by Gavin Hood and starring Helen Mirren), this riveting documentary is the best look to date at drone warfare. Many Americans have been led to believe that drone surveillance and [...]
Review: The Innocents
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Anne Fontaine’s narrative fiction bio-pic packs a powerful punch. It is a story of the most unlikely people coming together in the worst of times, and good coming of it. Lou de Laâge plays French medical student Mathilde Beaulieu, serving in a French Red [...]
Review: Miss Hokusai
— by BEV QUESTAD — A big “Oh My!” goes to the production company and director of this beautifully rendered animation on the life of the most famous Japanese painter of all time. However, I’ll tell you right now that after watching this film, I spent about four hours on the internet[...]
Review: Fire at Sea
— by RON WILKINSON — Gianfranco Rosi’s genre bending documentary “Fire at Sea” is two stories. The first is the story of 12-year-old Samuele growing up in the Garden of Eden environment of Lampedusa, an island 200 kilometers south of Italy in the heart of the Mediterran[...]
Review: After Spring
— by BEV QUESTAD — There are three things to know before you see this film. First, Jon Stewart, past host of “The Daily Show,” is the executive producer, so expect a documentary with integrity. Second, one man, Charles Lee, knows the fundamental problem in refugee camps, so expect a [...]
Review: Tanna
— by BEV QUESTAD — Based on a true Romeo and Juliet story, this tale of dangerous, forbidden love takes place on Tanna, one of the lush Vanuatu jungle islands in the South Pacific. Tradition rules that girls must marry outside their tribe, but Wawa and Dain, members of the same tribe, se[...]
Review: King Cobra
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Justin Kelly’s (“I Am Michael”) film is based on the true story of a gay porn film star who switches his allegiance mid contract. The bloody violence that ensues is depicted as being caused by childhood pedophilic trauma, but there is so lit[...]
Review: Theo Who Lived
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Theo Who Lived” is a documentary about a quirky journalist who was tortured and prepared for death by hanging. He returns to re-trace his steps for this documentary, re-enacting his exhilarated run across the Turkey-Syrian border as well as the self-impose[...]
Review: Do Not Resist
— by BEV QUESTAD — Remember the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, protest for the police shooting of Michael Brown? Craig Atkinson, filmmaker and the son of a SWAT team officer and a participant in SWAT trainings, reveals that times are a-changing when it comes to police tactics and ideology thro[...]
Review: Aquarius
— by RON WILKINSON — Emerging writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho uncorks a simmering thriller with this Brazilian morality tale. Life in Recife 40 years ago is compared to life today and it does not measure up. Everything is about change, growth, speed and, above all, money. Gone are[...]
Review: Snowden
— by BEV QUESTAD — “What is it about this job that’s worth more than your life?” shouts an exasperated Lindsay Mills’ to her boyfriend, Edward Snowden. Oliver Stone, whose controversial films have won nine Academy Awards, lays out a story about a man willing to give up ev[...]
Review: Among the Believers
— by RON WILKINSON — Directors Mohammed Naqvi and Hemal Trivedi (written by Jonathan Goodman Levitt) somehow obtain amazing access to the extremely powerful, and heavily armed, Muslim cleric and Taliban ally Maulana Aziz. Although one has to wonder how much they dared record, their spont[...]