— 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 […][...]
The 28TH OFCS Awards: Nominees & Winners
— by BEV QUESTAD — The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS), representing nearly 300 continually vetted online film journalists representing Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Slant, AARP and more, historians, and scholars worldwide, one-third based outside the US, announced the winners of its 2024 film awards on Jan. 27, 2025. As an OFCS member, I have […][...]
Review: Nosferatu
— by WILLIAM STERR — Some lovers aren’t satisfied unless they can completely possess you. So it is with Ellen Hutter and her count. Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is an up-and-coming employee at Herr Knock’s (Simon McBurney) real estate brokerage. He is given the charge of delivering a sales contract to a Count Orlok, some […][...]