Exclusive Interview Part One: The Film Daizy Gedeon with Ramez Tomeh, Beirut transcribed and introduced by Bev Questad, IJM writer Lebanon has free-fallen from a robust bastion of capitalism and visionary democracy to a corrupt failed state incapable of maintaining a banking system or stable electricity for its streets, businesses, and homes. How did this […][...]
Review: The Last of the Winthrops
— by WILLIAM STERR — Who among us has not wondered what secrets our ancestral past might hold? The advent of inexpensive gene sequencing has brought many pleasant surprises, as many disappointments, and some real misery. Still, wouldn’t it be wonderful to discover you were the great great grandchild of some prominent person – even […][...]
New Daniela Repas film in pre-production
— by BEV QUESTAD — It was a dark, rainy night as I walked into the hollow exhibition building on Portland Oregon’s Eastside, just steps from the cold Willamette River. Hung on repeated clotheslines were notebook-sized hand-drawn pencil sketches, hundreds meticulously crafted in testimony to the ordeals of both past and present refugees. How long […][...]
Review: Infinite Sea
— by WILLIAM STERR — When Portuguese writer/director Carlos Amaral (“Por Diabos”) sat down to work out the story of “Infinite Sea,” I’m sure he found the idea fascinating and full of promise, as did I when I first heard of his film. The story takes place in a bleak, near empty city somewhere in […][...]
Review: Back to the Drive-In
— by WILLIAM STERR — When I was a kid back in Green Bay, Wisc., the family would pile into the station wagon and go out for an evening of movies at the drive-in. In our case, it was the Starlite Drive-In, which had opened in 1949. A few years later, it was my high […][...]
Review: Triangle of Sadness
— by BEV QUESTAD — 1. “The last capitalist we hang is the one who sold us the rope.” Who said it? Nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, “Triangle of Sadness” is a cutting satire on power and the human condition. The very worst part of the film, which lasted many minutes, was the sickening […][...]
Review: Juniper
— by WILLIAM STERR — Juniper – a genus of hardy aromatic evergreen trees or shrubs of the cypress family, distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The “berry” – actually a fleshy cone – of the juniper is used to flavor gin. Sam (George Ferrier – “Kiwi Christmas”) is having a difficult time of it. He […][...]
Review: Living
— by WILLIAM STERR — In 1843, a British writer published a story about a man who, in his ambition for a secure life in business, drove away those around him and hollowed out that life. Eventually, faced with the threat of his own death, he changed his ways and began reconnecting: doing good in […][...]
Review: Goliath
— by WILLIAM STERR — This is a difficult, even infuriating, movie. Most of us are familiar with the story of how the tobacco industry fought for decades to obscure the fact about tobacco use, addiction and health issues. We’ve seen the same thing with fossil fuels and opioids. French writer/director Frederic Tellier (“Through the […][...]
Review: The Whale
— by WILLIAM STERR — In 2012, Darren Aronofsky (“Mother!”), attended a performance of “The Whale,” a play by Samuel Hunter. A decade later, he directed a movie version with Hunter as screenwriter and Brendan Fraser (“Gods and Monsters”) starring as the protagonist, Charlie. Charlie is a recluse. He teaches a writing class online, invisible […][...]