— by BEV QUESTAD — Oh Norway! Your movies are so challenging to understand. Why not send us a sweet rom/com or a rich documentary? Why another angst-driven drama with themes of guilt and moral conflict? And another thing, why get so creative with your presentations, like breaking into a frenzied song and dance in […][...]
Review: Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep
— by WILLIAM STERR — H.P. Lovecraft died in 1937. At the time, he was an impoverished, barely known writer of fantastic fiction. Since then, his works, all in the public domain, have been the inspiration for hundreds of writers and scores of film-makers. Many of those writers have contributed significant works of fiction, and […][...]
Review: The Rule of Jenny Pen
— by WILLIAM STERR — Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow. Two elder luminaries of the cinema world. Lithgow turned in a fine performance as a conniving American cardinal in 2024’s “Conclave,” nd Best Actor Oscar-winner Rush, long a stage actor in Australia, is best known in film for “Shine” and “Quills.” Stefan Mortenson (Rush) is […][...]
Review: Immaculate
— by WILLIAM STERR — When do miracles cross the line into mad science? As a young girl, Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney – “Madame Web”) suffered a near death experience. It changed her life, and she decided to devote that life to God. When still a novitiate, her local US convent closed. But then she was […][...]
Review: Anora
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Anora”: Winner of the 2025 Academy Awards for Best Direction, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing (all by Sean Baker), Best Actress (Mikey Madison) and Best Picture. This is a complicated film. It begins with a somewhat silly, extremely graphic sexual relationship between a wealthy Russian boy, Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn – […][...]
Review: I’m Still Here
— by BEV QUESTAD — Jolting. I thought I would just watch the first five or 10 minutes and finish the rest the next day. I quickly forgot about that as I was gripped by the series of true events that could so possibly happen in America. But jolting was also the decision on March […][...]
Review: Flow
— by BEV QUESTAD — A holy sermon. A visual splendor. A film I would long to live inside with its wildflowers, long wispy grasses swaying in the gentle breeze, and the delightful cottage with round window above the second floor beneath which a cozy bed was built-in – except for the fact that a […][...]
Review: Seven Veils
— by WILLIAM STERR — When art copies life copies art. Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried – “I Don’t Understand You”) has an opportunity to re-mount the opera “Salome,” a piece that she worked on with her deceased mentor, Charles, years before. She leaps at the chance. However, she faces several obstacles. Charles’ estate, represented by his […][...]
Review: Old Guy
— by BEV QUESTAD — There’s a new James Bond in town and he’s not with M16. Austrian-German Christoph Waltz still has it in his 60s. He has a Sean Connery-like brogue, hair coif, handsome eye twinkle and a snazzy car. We meet him early in the film rocking out at a DJ club in […][...]
Review: Conclave
— by BEV QUESTAD — The throne of the Holy See is vacant and beside the deathbed is a chess game in progress. “Conclave” has sweeping vistas of art, painstaking replicas of intricately embroidered Cardinal costumes, and one of the best all-time endings in the history of cinema. It is a human chess match of […][...]