— by BEV QUESTAD — Blueberry soup, often served cold on New Year’s Day, is high in anti-oxidants. Tradition says it cleanses and purifies the system. Hopefully, this metaphor will eventually prove an accurate description for the ground-breaking constitutional experiment in Iceland. In [...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: 40 Days of Silence
— by RON WILKINSON — Screened at the 40th Seattle International Film Festival, Saodat Ismailova’s “Chilla” came as a surprise to an audience expecting the Indian crime thriller “Monsoon Shootout.” As the SIFF staff pointed out, “this is no Monsoon Shootout.” Indeed, Ismailo[...]
Review: Stand Clear of the Closing Doors
— by RON WILKINSON — Emerging director Sam Fleischner is able to put his dozen-plus lenser creds to good use in this surrealistic yet grounded narrative of a boy lost in the New York subways. Winner of a Special Jury Mention for Best Narrative Feature at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, t[...]
Review: Half of a Yellow Sun
— by BEV QUESTAD — In the beginning, two beautiful women are dining at a stately dinner in their luxurious family home. In a seeming eyeblink, they are caught in the tightening vise of a desperate civil war. This is a harrowing story of imperialism and the now-familiar pattern of events [...]
Review: The Double
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Richard Ayoade follows up his well-received “Submarine” with a gutsy adaptation of Dostoevsky’s redoubtable novel. Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska, “The Double” trots out a remarkable cast of famous actors, even more rema[...]
Review: Nymphomaniac: Vol. I
— by RON WILKINSON — The buzz about Lars von Trier’s sex lollapalooza “Nymphomaniac” has preceded the film like a tidal wave. As might be expected, von Trier had bigger things in mind when he decided to invite viewers inside the head of a very disturbed person. If you want porn, bu[...]
Review: Particle Fever
— by RON WILKINSON — The greatest experiment taking place today is the proton smashing in the Large Hadron Collider buried deep underground at the Swiss-French border outside of Geneva. This collider is an order of magnitude more powerful than any collider that has gone before it. This m[...]
Review: Afternoon of a Faun
— by RON WILKINSON — Known as “Tanny” to several generations of American ballet insiders, Tanaquille le Clercq lived the perfect life of the ballerina in pre-war America. Married to one of the legends of ballet, George Balanchine, and pursued by another, Jerome Robbins, she dominated[...]
Review: The Last of the Unjust
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Claude Lanzmann’s sweeping documentary of the Holocaust screened at the 2013 New York Film Festival to mixed reviews. The rambling 220-minute saga centered on interviews with, and information provided by, Benjamin Murmelstein. Murmelstein was the last Jewi[...]
Review: Ich Hunger
— by BEV QUESTAD — Wild Creature meets Tinkerbell in pastoral faux Germany during a murder investigation. Beginning with a deep “Ommmm” beset with cacophonous sounds, “Ich Hunger” delivers an expressionist tableau of foolery and macabre. Experimental camera tricks abound, especia[...]
Review: Noah
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Noah” is a remarkable interpretation of The Great Flood and a fitting choice to open during Lent, a time of repentance and ultimate rebirth. It is all about dying and rising. We sleep, we wake. We fail, try again, and rise. Nature abounds in this cycle and it is t[...]
Review: Remote Area Medical
— by BEV QUESTAD — Screened at the 2014 Portland International Film Festival, “Remote Area Medical” (RAM) is a Doctors Without Borders kind of international medical/dental/optical service. Volunteers go in for a three-day weekend and serve everyone who shows up. Its inaugural mission[...]
Review: The Autobiography of Karl Krogstad
— by BEV QUESTAD — Reminiscent of Steve Allen’s bizarre comedy of the 1960s, the wacko, surreal Karl Krogstad has created a film about himself. It is a little narcissistic, but so chalked up with images, metaphors and color, that audiences will either hurt from two solid hours of broad[...]
Review: Non-Stop
— by JESSIKA OWENS — Airplanes seem like a logical place for thriller movies, until one closely examines the challenges and limitations of filming and storyline. In my experience, it generally doesn’t work. There’s only so much set that can be used and the whole process feels[...]