— by WILLIAM STERR — It’s only a few days into 2023 and things are already headed for the drain. Wars rage on, famine increases, chaos reigns in the House of Representatives and, worst of all, I just sat through “Those Who Call.” This Opus Minus by writer/director Anubys Lopez (“Aged”) is purported to be […][...]
Review: Retrograde
— by BEV QUESTAD — Here we are, riding along with the Afghan general, Sami Sadat, being notified we are the target of a suicide bomber – right now! The car is driving wildly in and out of a protective caravan – the only defense maneuver possible. At other times, we are right in the […][...]
Review: A Man Called Otto
— by BEV QUESTAD — “The whole neighborhood is falling apart these days,” intones a fed-up Otto (Tom Hanks) to his wife’s gravestone. As a matter of fact, he plans to join her soon. Suicide is the antidote for his grief. So, as soon as he retires from his job and no longer has responsibilities, […][...]
Review: Corsage
— by WILLIAM STERR — This 2022 film, Austria’s Foreign Language entry to the Academy Awards, is the (highly) fictionalized account of a brief period in the life of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. Not only is it a fictionalized account covering the years 1877 and 1878, it also has elements of […][...]
Review: Taming the Garden
— by BEV QUESTAD — There’s no narration to this doc verite. Overheard voices can be heard, but this is basically the silent story about transplanting a beautiful tree from a spot in rural Georgia, a nation of diverse geology and topography on Turkey’s border to the north. “Taming the Garden” shows the slow, painstaking […][...]
Review: Hidden Letters
— by BEV QUESTAD — The film opens with soft, Monet-like pastoral landscapes around a Chinese village and progresses to clips of modern city life is Shanghai. These scenes represent the history of the secret script of Nushu, a language used during the old days of China when women’s feet were bound in crippling incapacitation. […][...]
Review: Nothing Compares
— by BEV QUESTAD — After Sinead O’Connor ripped a picture of Pope John Paul II’s picture on SNL in 1992 and announced, “Fight the real enemy,” I just chalked it up to a celebrity desperately craving notoriety. I had no idea she was protesting child abuse within the Catholic Church or her own unfortunate […][...]
Review: A Piece of Sky (aka Drii Winter)
— by BEV QUESTAD — It’s not a happy film and at times it moves too slowly. How long can we look at a chairlift? But “A Piece of Sky” does deal with a mammoth issue that I’ll politely refer to in general as mental illness. What do you do when your partner, your spouse, […][...]
Review: Ticket to Paradise
— by BEV QUESTAD — Thank you – Thank you – Thank you George Clooney and Julia Roberts for giving us such a fun film! It is a feast of enjoyment! David and Georgia Cotton are divorced but find themselves seated next to each other at their only daughter’s graduation. They hate the proximity but […][...]