— by BEV QUESTAD — I’ve been thinking lately about what affects people’s destiny. There were seven of us freshmen friends at Whitman College. As an only child, I felt like I finally had sisters. But after that year we each veered off into different futures. If we could have chosen – like if we […][...]
Review: Spider-Man: Brand New Day
— by BEV QUESTAD — Logan, aged 5, is reportedly too young for the PG-13 rated “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” because of “sequences of action and violence.” But if you ask him, it’s only children younger than 5 who shouldn’t see this film. Having watched the first two Spider-Man films with his dad, Logan was […][...]
Review: Misan Harriman: Shoot the People
— by WILLIAM STERR — “A struggle without documentation is no struggle at all” – Peter Magubane, South African Photographer. Misan Harriman, who knew Magubane, and as a chronicler of civil struggles around the world has followed in the photographer’s footsteps, knows well what it is to be in the fight as well as documenting […][...]
Review: Starman
— by BEV QUESTAD — Are we alone in the universe? Why am I here? Why is there a world? Those are the questions super genius Gentry Lee, a NASA robotics engineer, poses. He is called Starman. He answers those questions in a surprising exposé on extraterrestrial life. In the end, he presents the most […][...]
Review: American Doctor
— by BEV QUESTAD — Here are masked men who steal your heart. They are surgeons who signed up to work the trauma cases our tax dollars have created in Gaza. Award-winning filmmaker Poh Si Teng and her crew risked their lives to film these heroes, an American Jew and an American Zoroastrian, working side […][...]
Review: American Pachuco
— by BEV QUESTAD — Jamie was 10 and a music lover. I took him to see “La Bamba.” Though rated PG-13, the rating noted he movie had no nudity, sex, violence or swearing. What could go wrong? In the end, Jamie cried right out loud, grief-stricken about what happened to Ritchie Valens, who died […][...]
Review: Pescador
— by WILLIAM STERR — This is a strange one. First of all, the story was inspired by dreams the writer/director recalled from his time in an induced coma. Second, it includes a magical talking lobster. Third, it is divided into three very different parts. Part 1: The Woman Searches for a Fish A young […][...]
Review: In the Hand of Dante
— by WILLIAM STERR — Imagine you have just been told that one of the most famous poems in the world, one whose original text is lost to history, has instead been hidden in a crypt in the Vatican for centuries. Not only that, you are being commissioned to go to Italy and recover it. […][...]
Review: Iron Lung
— by WILLIAM STERR — 120 minutes of inarticulate mumbling in a claustrophobic cylinder, intermingled with four minutes of excitement. This is another video game-to-movie production. For those of you who are not gamers, or at least have not played the game “Iron Lung,” the movie is basically the game played on the big screen […][...]
Review: Honeyjoon
— by WILLIAM STERR — What an emotional roller coaster! Lela and June, mother and daughter, have arrived in the Azores, a spot their husband and father loved but never had a chance to share with them. So, as the anniversary of his death draws near, they’ve booked into a “Honeymoon Special” to come to […][...]