— by WILLIAM STERR — Every year – maybe every month – we read about new aspects of our ever-expanding knowledge of the universe. Of creation. And as this knowledge expands, even though our ability to comprehend the wonders of existence expands with it, our actually position in that u[...]
Author Archive
Review: Irena’s Vow
— by WILLIAM STERR — Sometimes people find themselves in desperate situations. Situations where they must make life and death decisions. Such was the situation Irena Gut (Sophie Nelisse – “Close”) faced in Lublin, Poland, during the German invasion in 1939. Training as a nurse,[...]
Review: Just Getting By
— by WILLIAM STERR — Bess O’Brien is located in the northeast corner (the Northeast Kingdom) of Vermont. There she has turned out a number of fascinating documentaries on the people of Vermont over many years. She has a new one out: “Just Getting By.” In her previous work, through [...]
Review: The Black Guelph
— by WILLIAM STERR — The Black Guelph was a group of men who, in 14th century Italy, took it upon themselves to violently support the Pope against any adversary seeking to weaken the stranglehold the papacy had over the Italian principalities. Among their victims was the great poet, Dant[...]
Review: The Uncertain Detective
— by WILLIAM STERR — This is a bizarre little film. Actually, it’s a film about a man making a filmed podcast called “The Uncertain Detective.” “The Uncertain Detective” is about a detective (Gregg Lachow) and his assistant detective (Eric Ray Anderson). Their motto is “No ca[...]
Review: All We Carry
— by WILLIAM STERR — What is it like to be threatened by ruthless gangs and then, when you go to the police, discover that they are being paid off by those same gangs? There are people in the US who know all too well what that is like, but most of us don’t. Even […][...]
Review: Limbo
— by WILLIAM STERR — Limbo – a fictional town in the hot, arid Australian Outback. Limbo – a place of indeterminate location, whose inhabitants are neither in heaven nor hell. Limbo – a film by aboriginal director/writer Ivan Sen, which explores a forgotten murder case that took pl[...]
Review: Knox Goes Away
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Put it on the … the … the thing over there … you know.” How many times has something like that happened to you? You need a common, everyday word and it just wont come. Then the person you’re talking to says “counter?” and of course you knew that! It [...]
Review: American Dreamer
— by WILLIAM STERR — Dr. Phil Loder (Peter Dinklage – “Game of Thrones”) is a professor of Economics at Brockton University in Massachusetts. He’s an adjunct professor. That means he has no tenure, no protections against claims of improper behavior, a very low salary, and no [...]
Review: Veselka
— by WILLIAM STERR — “Jason Birchard has a hunger to feed people …” So intones narrator David Duchovny (“The X Files”), who himself has some Ukrainian ancestry, at the beginning of this documentary about a unique Ukrainian restaurant in New York City. The restaurant began a[...]
Review: Cold Meat
— by WILLIAM STERR — The story of the Wendigo is an enduring one that has been the basis of numerous films over the years. It appeared as a motivating character in Steven King’s 1983 novel “Pet Cemetery,” as the title character in numerous films, as the possessing spirit in Guiller[...]
Review: Vishniac
— by WILLIAM STERR — Imagine the breadth of a life that began before the end of the 19th century and lasted almost until the 21st. Further, imagine that life beginning in Czarist Russia, passing through Wiemar and then Nazi Germany, and ending in 1990 New York City. That was the life of [...]
Review: The Painter
— by WILLIAM STERR — Peter Barrett (Charlie Weber – “Panama”) was a CIA operative. He specialized in extra-legal killing of large numbers of other killers in order to carry out his missions. On one of these, he discovered that his wife, Elena (Rryla McIntosh – “Under Wr[...]
Review: Bad Hombres
— by WILLIAM STERR — Felix (Diego Tinoco – “Muzzle”) has finally made it to the US after a grueling – and expensive – trek from his native Uruguay. He meets his cousin, who’s already made it here, and together they go to seek work – Felix’s first step on a climb to im[...]