— by BEV QUESTAD — The prison door closes and young, redheaded Rose, shackled to an ankle monitor, is free to pursue her dream. Despite living poor in Glasgow, Scotland and speaking with an often-indecipherable brogue, Rose wants to become a Nashville singing star. But her first spontaneous celebration upon release is to have sex […][...]
Review: We Believe in Dinosaurs
— by BEV QUESTAD — In 2016, a $120 million dollar replica of Noah’s ark was built in northern Kentucky. It’s a gorgeous creation reminiscent of an exhibit in a Disney theme park, with a series of realistic scenes lining the walkway inside the boat. There is the sinful sybaritic lifestyle leading up to the […][...]
Review: I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians
— by RON WILKINSON — This delicious treatment of the art, craft or debacle of making a movie places the dilemmas of the commercial artist alongside the travesty of the Holocaust. The treatment of the concept as a movie within a movie comes through as simply superlative film making. It is a joy to behold, […][...]
Review: Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins
— by BEV QUESTAD — For Molly Ivins, there were two sides to the political spectrum, not the Left or the Right, but the Top to the Bottom. The American Film Institute (AFI) is closing their 2019 Doc Fest this year with “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins.” An acerbic political Texan […][...]
Review: Buddy
— by BEV QUESTAD — At age 13, Edith was blinded from the impact of a German bomb in the Netherlands. Undaunted, she learned to gallop on a horse while her guide dog scampered beside, trying to keep up the pace. What a great life for several dogs, all who lived and died under Edith’s […][...]
Review: Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes
— by BEV QUESTAD — The only way to write an honest reflection on a Blue Note Records documentary is from a dark inner city bar where James T is on stage and the audience only stops their chatter to clap between performance pauses. James tells me it’s that chatter that gives the musician freedom […][...]
Review: The Dead Don’t Die
— by RON WILKINSON — We thought Jim Jarmusch was getting serious with “Patterson.” But now this. A most glorious send-up of zombie films complete with anarchic cheerleading and bonus jabs at liberal smugness. A superb cast of thoroughly wasted performances sacrificed on the altar of heedless enjoyment. A magnificent loser of a success. Re-uniting […][...]
Review: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
— by BEV QUESTAD — “If there is life on Mars, they are reading Toni Morrison to find what it means to be human,” matter-of-factly says Farah Griffin, a professor at Columbia University. My first exposure to Morrison was through “Beloved.” A group of 10 teachers and I had intended to read her book, see […][...]
Review: The Reports on Sarah and Saleem
— by RON WILKINSON — The most important ingredient in a great thriller is guilt, and right from the starting gun Sarah and Saleem have it in spades. Undeniably, the most inexplicable yet undeniable failure of human judgment is the extra-marital affair. Almost always doomed to failure, the sensual fling hurts everyone around the perps […][...]
Are R ratings cinema gold?
There has long been a perception in Hollywood that films rated R are not profitable. Why? Because according to the charts, the most common film-goers are teenagers. So, a film with an R rating means that you are cutting off a large portion of your prime audience. It makes sense, on paper. Whether it was […][...]