— by WILLIAM STERR — Nicolas Cage: Oscar winner, Golden Globe winner, SAG winner, all time Blockbuster Entertainment (yeah, the video store people) award winner, and frequent Razzie nominee. You never know who you’re going to get with a Nick Cage movie – in fact, in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” you got Nick […][...]
Review: Users
— by BEV QUESTAD — I’m a documentary fan. I love learning and, as long as it is well-substantiated, I love viewing an in-depth, non-fiction perspective on something. However, there are several types of docs and, in my opinion, they are not equally entertaining or informative. So, I don’t know why I chose to watch […][...]
Review: Mad Heidi
— by WILLIAM STERR — In my avocation as a movie reviewer, I often – too often – screen films that, for lack of a better word, are pretty “cheesy.” Outrageous dialogue, over the top acting, fantastic settings, impossible premises, outlandish costumes, and so on. This one takes the cake – make that the cheesecake […][...]
Review: Scarlet
— by WILLIAM STERR — What will eventually be known as World War I is finally over. Columns of exhausted, ragged French soldiers straggle along the horizon. One man separates himself from the others and carries on alone. He is Raphael (Raphael Thiery – “L’homme d’argile”), and he is returning to the farm where he […][...]
Review: Peppergrass
— by WILLIAM STERR — Rough times. The corona virus is raging in Canada and businesses are shut down. Eula Baek’s (Chantelle Han – “Circle of Steel”) grandfather has died, and the restaurant he owned is going under. She needs cash from somewhere, and boyfriend Morris Weiss (Charles Boyland – “Becky”) has an idea. The […][...]
Review: Afghan Dreamers
— by BEV QUESTAD — On Fridays, when the men aren’t around, Lida’s father takes her to the mechanic shop to work on cars. She demonstrates her skill at changing a tire, spinning the socket wrench like a pro. Rare for women in her country, she also drives. But her primary focus is working with […][...]
Review: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
— by WILLIAM STERR — We are all familiar with the story of Frankenstein. Many of us are familiar with the fact that Mary Shelley wrote it as a moralistic tale, not just a horror story. That important aspect is too often lost in the film translations, with “Man was never meant to play God” […][...]
Review: A Handful of Water
— by BEV QUESTAD — A 12-year-old Yemeni refugee and an 85-year-old German man, once a refugee himself, meet in Germany. The old widower, Konrad (Jürgen Prochnow – “Das Boot”), and the 12-year old fugitive, Thurba (Milena Pribak), are adversaries at first, but their separate battles coincide. On the surface the story is certainly gripping […][...]
Review: The Human Trial
— by BEV QUESTAD — Lisa Hepner takes us through what it’s like to be a human rodent in a high stakes trial. The pressure is hot. This particular test trial is the first one using humans after a success on mice, but only180 days are left of Viacyte’s funding. Everyone wants the scientific experiment […][...]
Review: Assassin Club
— by WILLIAM STERR — Our story begins in Prague, Czechoslovakia, with the assassination of a wealthy man and near-killing of his young daughter, who is saved by her uncle. Flash forward seven years to Ljubljana, Slovenia. It’s nighttime and an assassin waits in an upper floor of a building overlooking another where a criminal […][...]