— by WILLIAM STERR — During her career, Kathryn Bigelow has produced a number of outstanding and intriguing films. Among them are “Near Dark” about a vampire family, “The Hurt Locker” which deals with the Iraq war, and “Zero Dark Thirty” about the search for Osama bin Laden. [...]
Author Archive
Review: Sentimental Value
— by WILLIAM STERR — Film directors can be difficult people – especially if you have to live with one. Just ask Nora and Agnes. Their father, the celebrated Scandinavian auteur Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård – “Dune”), was barely part of their lives as they grew up – alway[...]
Review: Holding Liat
— by WILLIAM STERR — “We’re being led by by crazy people, whether its on the Israeli side or whether on the Palestinian side. And the result is all this death and destruction. And the whole thing makes me angry.” So said Yahuda Beinin one week after his daughter Liat and son-in-law[...]
Review: Dracula
— by WILLIAM STERR — We are all familiar with Bram Stoker’s novel of the undying vampire. Even if we’ve never read that musty tome, the countless films, TV adaptations, plays, parodies and popular references have touched us all. Dracula (Caleb Landry Jones – “Harvest”) has [...]
Review: Sallywood
— by WILLIAM STERR — On Nov. 11, 2025, Sally Kirkland “passed into spirit” (died) in Palm Springs, Calif., at the age of 84. In her career, she appeared in more than 250 movie and TV shows, beginning in 1964 in Andy Warhol’s “The 13 Most Beautiful Women.” In “Sallywood,” Za[...]
Review: Frankenstein
— by WILLIAM STERR — Lavish. Everyone says so. The new Guillermo del Toro version of “Frankenstein” is so lavishly mounted that many scenes impress as if they were paintings by a grand master. I’ve seen them, and agree. The problem is that the lavish set pieces overshadow the story[...]
Review: Hellboy: The Crooked Man
— by WILLIAM STERR — Hellboy has received a number of film treatments since his creation by Mike Mignola in 1994, when the character appeared in Dark Horse Comics’ “Hellboy: Seed of Destruction.” “Hellboy: The Crooked Man” is the fourth film adaptation of the comic character. W[...]
Review: Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere
— by WILLIAM STERR — Steve Schapiro passed away in 2022 at the age of 87. He discovered photography while at summer camp at the age of nine, fascinated by the magical appearance of an image on a blank sheet of paper through the photo development process. Shortly before his death, he was [...]
Review: Reawakening
— by WILLIAM STERR — Ten years. Ten years of wondering, fearing, hoping. That is what Mary and John Reed have gone through since their 14 year old daughter, Clare, walked out of the house and disappeared. A parents’ nightmare. During all that time, this middle-aged working class Britis[...]
Review: Borley Rectory: The Awakening
— by WILLIAM STERR — IMDB currently gives this period haunting an 8.1/10.0 rating (as of Oct. 21, 2025). I beg to differ. Borley Rectory was a real place, once known as “the most haunted house in Britain.” This appellation is primarily due to the questionable investigation of the sup[...]
Review: On The End
— by WILLIAM STERR — Thomas Ferreiri (Tim Blake Nelson – “Old Henry”) is not an attractive man. He’s a diabetic, has bad teeth, uses foul language, and lives in what can best be described as a nightmare of trash and auto parts. His neighbor and aunt, Dolly (Lois Smith –[...]
Review: Tribe
— by WILLIAM STERR — The Silurian Hypothesis. Formed in 2018, this thought experiment posits that a superior intelligent race existed on earth before humans, and that evidence of them can be found even after millions of years. Retired Prof. Devin Adams (played by an uncredited Dan Asma, [...]
Review: Beyond the Drumlins
— by WILLIAM STERR — drum’lin (noun): an oval or elongated hill believed to have been formed by the streamlined movement of glacial ice sheets across rock debris, or till. The name is derived from the Gaelic word druim (“rounded hill,” or “mound”). Encyclopedia Britannica There[...]
Review: Mr. Blake at Your Service!
— by WILLIAM STERR — In an age of raucous, frenetic, raunchy comedies, this film is a throwback to a gentler, more respectable, even genteel comic sensibility. As such, it’s general audience popularity is in question. Andrew Blake (John Malkovich) is a widower. His French wife died fou[...]