David Sterritt

Agrees with the Tomatometer 73% of the time.

Biography:
David Sterritt has been Film Critic of The Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper, for more than 30 years. As a syndicated writer for the Monitor News Service he has contributed articles on film, theater, and music to The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and many other periodicals. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Film Comment, Cineaste, Variety, American Film, Stagebill, down beat, and other publications. His reviews were heard for many years on Monitor Radio, carried by Public Radio International, and he is a former film critic for All Things Considered on National Public Radio. Television appearances include ABC’s Nightline, the CBS Morning News, PBS’s Cinema, the Discovery Channel’s World Monitor, and programs on CNN, MSNBC, the Fox News Channel, MSG Metro, and CNBC. He is Professor of Theater and Film at the C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University and a member of the Film Studies Faculty at Columbia University, and he has taught at New York University and the City University of New York. His collected Monitor film criticism is housed by invitation in the Harvard Film Archive at Harvard University. He holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University. He served for five years on the Selection Committee of the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center, and is Chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as a member of the National Society of Film Critics and other professional organizations. He lectures frequently at museums, universities, film festivals, libraries, cinema clubs, etc. His book "The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible" was published last year by Cambridge University Press, which published his book "The Films of Alfred Hitchcock" in 1993. He is also the author of "Mad to Be Saved: The Beats, the '50s, and Film" (Southern Illinois University Press, 1998) and the editor of "Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews" and "Robert Altman: Interviews," both from University Press of Mississippi. Other recent publications include "From Psychology to Spirit" in the anthology "Jean-Luc Godard’s Hail Mary: Women and the Sacred in Film" from Southern Illinois University Press; "Notes" in the anthology "Meredith Monk" from The Johns Hopkins University Press; essays in the Hitchcock Annual, the Austrian film magazine Blimp, the Columbia University magazine 21st C, the Long Island University journal Ventures in Research, the Canadian journal Mosaic, and (forthcoming) the American journals Wide Angle and The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, as well as program essays for the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the San Francisco International Film Festival. He is currently coediting "Terry Gilliam: Interviews"
Publications:
Christian Science Monitor , Film Scouts , Senses of Cinema
Critics' Group:
National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle
Total Reviews:
1078
Location:
New York, NY

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 51 - 100 of 1078
Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
60% Among Giants (1999) Christian Science Monitor
Posted Oct 14, 2006
71% Bringing Out the Dead (1999) Christian Science Monitor
Posted Oct 14, 2006
51% Anna and the King (2000) Christian Science Monitor
Posted Oct 14, 2006
80% Emporte-moi (Set Me Free) (1999) Christian Science Monitor
Posted Oct 14, 2006
—— Drácula (Dracula, Spanish Version) (1931) Christian Science Monitor
Posted Sep 23, 2006
2/4 —— Making Grace (2006) " Informative, but very slow going." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Sep 8, 2005
3/4 100% Lustre (2005) " This modest drama is a touching tribute to the late Argo, a character actor you'll instantly recognize." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 25, 2005
A 84% The Future of Food (2005) " There's a stunning revelation in almost every scene." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 18, 2005
4/4 97% The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005) " Required viewing for anyone interested in the struggle for American racial equality." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 18, 2005
4/4 88% Touch The Sound (2004) " Exquisitely beautiful for the eyes as for the ears." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 11, 2005
4/4 83% This Divided State (2005) " Frequently funny, sometimes sad, often electrifying." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 11, 2005
4/4 83% One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern (2005) " The interviews with him are worth the price of admission." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 11, 2005
3/4 95% The Goebbels Experiment (2005) " Informative and illuminating." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 11, 2005
4/4 72% Clean (2005) " Can a misguided adult start afresh with a new set of values and priorities? This ambitious drama, directed by one of France's most resourceful filmmakers, explores that crucial question in depth and detail." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 11, 2005
4/4 38% The Brothers Grimm (2005) " Gilliam has rarely been more inventive, energetic, or just plain funny." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 11, 2005
3/4 37% Asylum (2005) " Patrick McGrath's novel provides a solid and suspenseful story, even if it loses much of its bite in Mackenzie's hands." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 11, 2005
3/4 83% Young Rebels (Jovenes rebeldes) (2005) " An eye-opening movie, both socially and politically." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
4/4 85% 2046 (2005) " Filmed to perfection by the great Christopher Doyle and others." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
4/4 63% Saint Ralph (2005) " This deliciously offbeat Canadian comedy gets its charm from marvelous acting and from a screenplay bursting with ideas." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
4/4 32% November (2005) " An ingeniously scripted psychological thriller." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
3/4 75% Just One Look (2005) " A romantic kung-fu comedy with a good heart." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
4/4 86% Junebug (2005) " This low-key drama is a miracle of mood, atmosphere, and sensitivity." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
4/4 93% Grizzly Man (2005) " As revealing about Herzog as about his subject, the movie is brilliant, poetic, and utterly unique." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
4/4 34% The Chumscrubber (2005) " At once dreamily surreal, acutely intelligent, and strikingly tough-minded." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 4, 2005
2/4 34% Must Love Dogs (2005) " Must Love Dogs isn't quite a dog, but it's far from an ideal date movie." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
4/4 88% Tony Takitani (2005) " The movie's underlying theme is the complex relationship between objects and memories, worked out through a taut, compelling story and superbly understated acting." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
2/4 25% 9 songs (2005) " It's always hard to predict what Winterbottom will try next, but this experiment isn't worth repeating, the lively concert scenes notwithstanding." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
3/4 67% Edgar G. Ulmer - The Man Off-screen (2005) " The subject and the film clips are great, although the documentary as a whole is a bit gimmicky." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
4/4 100% Il conformista (The Conformist) (1970) " Trintignant gives a legendary performance." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
2/4 77% Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2005) " The story is winning but the telling, with Dai adapting and directing from his own novel, is too sentimental in the long run." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
2/4 80% The Aristocrats (2005) " Mighty monotonous after a while." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
3/4 53% The Devil's Rejects (2005) " Horror fans will find what they're looking for." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 21, 2005
2/4 40% The Island (2005) " The first half is high-quality science fiction, the rest is a high-tech chase adventure with a gleeful yen for destructive thrills." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 21, 2005
4/4 57% Last Days (2005) " A true American tragedy, directed with skill and conviction." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 21, 2005
3/4 46% Bad News Bears (2005) " The coach is certainly an offensive goofball, and the Bears are certainly a pack of hard-to-handle whippersnappers. But the picture's point is that surfaces don't tell the whole story about people, about teams, or about anything." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 21, 2005
4/4 82% Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) " Burton turns out to be the ideal filmmaker for this deliciously bizarre yarn." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 14, 2005
2/4 77% The Beautiful Country (2005) " The subject is compelling but the story is very, very slow." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 14, 2005
4/4 68% Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus (2005) " Utterly fascinating journey." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 14, 2005
4/4 —— Return to the Land of Wonders (2005) " [Pachachi] keeps things lively by roaming far and wide with her camera, returning to the statesmanship side of the documentary often enough to let us follow relevant events as they unfold." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 14, 2005
3/4 54% Happy Endings (2005) " The best asset is first-rate acting; the worst liability is Roos's overuse of cinematic gimmicks." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 14, 2005
2/4 75% Wedding Crashers (2005) " There are a few good laughs, but not nearly enough clever ideas to keep things hopping for two hours." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 14, 2005
3/4 72% Crónicas (2005) " The film begins strongly and violently, then simmers down to a standard-issue suspense story." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 7, 2005
3/4 71% Doing Time, Doing Vipassana (1998) " Earnest, if not as informative as it might have been." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 7, 2005
4/4 98% Murderball (2005) " This is a lively, life-affirming documentary no viewer is likely to forget." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 7, 2005
4/4 92% Saraband (2003) " Its leisurely, deliberative style is a perfect complement to the emotions it deals with - emotions so penetrating that I warn you at the outset how jarringly intense you may find Bergman's most brilliant drama in decades." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 7, 2005
3/4 53% Yes (2005) " The results are visually striking, but conceptually they oscillate between poetic, pretentious, and philosophically dubious." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 7, 2005
2/4 45% Dark Water (2005) " There are only so many thrills you can generate with terrible plumbing." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 7, 2005
2/4 26% Fantastic Four (2005) " It's fun to watch superheroes who aren't quite at ease with their abilities, but The Incredibles -- last year's similarly themed animated film -- is livelier and funnier." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 7, 2005
4/4 71% The World (Shijie) (2005) " A brilliant, if challenging, film." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 30, 2005
4/4 76% Tropical Malady (2005) " While it's anything but commercial, it's also anything but unadventurous." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 30, 2005
2/4 18% This Revolution (2006) " It's a pity that such vital, thought-provoking material has been rendered so lifeless and inauthentic on the screen." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 30, 2005
4/4 85% De Battre mon Coeur s'est Arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) (2005) " As stylish as it is suspenseful." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 30, 2005
3/4 74% War of the Worlds (2005) " Tom Cruise gives one of his most intense performances, and the visual effects have enough high-tech power to make an army of interstellar invaders cringe." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 28, 2005
4/4 92% Waging a Living (2005) " Should be required viewing for every concerned citizen." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 23, 2005
4/4 89% Memories of Murder (Salinui chueok) (2003) " Suspenseful, surprising, and psychologically rich." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 23, 2005
3/4 68% Lila Says (2005) " Superbly acted, especially by Giocante as the teasing 16-year-old instigator." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 23, 2005
4/4 93% Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) (Lift to the Scaffold) (Frantic) (1958) " A plan for a perfect murder goes wildly wrong in this 1958 melodrama by one of France's great filmmakers." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 23, 2005
2/4 25% Bewitched (2005) " The movie is more effective in particular scenes than as a whole." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 23, 2005
3/4 83% You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story (2008) " Offbeat and entertaining." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 23, 2005
4/4 94% Wheel of Time (2003) " Riveting and unique." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
1/4 5% The Perfect Man (2005) " Repetitious teen-targeted fluff." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
3/4 59% The Talent Given Us (2004) " This isn't a movie, it's a thingamajig -- frequently as off-putting as can be, but unassailably one of a kind." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
4/4 90% My Summer of Love (2004) " Superbly acted, movingly written, and directed with a tough-minded lyricism rarely found in today's films." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
3/4 81% Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) " Many other characters also weave in and out of the story, which is sometimes sweet and ingenious, extremely explicit about adolescent sex. and occasionally too clever for its own good." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
3/4 75% JSA: Joint Security Area (Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA) (2000) " Suspenseful and psychologically rich." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
4/4 64% Heights (2005) " There's much subtle beauty in the last movie completed by Merchant Ivory Productions before Merchant's untimely death." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
3/4 71% The Great Water (2005) " This unusual Macedonian release is engrossing if not always nimbly directed." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
4/4 100% Edvard Munch (1994) " A masterly biopic." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
2/4 21% The Deal (2005) " The subject is intriguing even if the dialogue is stilted and the acting is uneven." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
3/4 89% Caterina in the Big City (Caterina va in citta) (2003) " This dramatic comedy is an Italian style Mean Girls." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
4/4 94% Café Lumiere (2004) " Hou's sensitivity plus Ozu's inspiration equals sublimity of sight and sound." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
2/4 85% Batman Begins (2005) " Batman Begins delivers enough action to please Saturday-night crowds, if not the surreal wit that made the first two Batman movies, directed by Tim Burton, so entertaining." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 16, 2005
1/4 59% Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) " A mish-mash of action-adventure clichés, book-ended with lame attempts at psychological interest." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
2/4 63% Wild Side (2005) " The primary impression is lots of moping and mooning, plus a song at the beginning with some of the worst lyrics you've ever heard." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
2/4 —— Paternal Instinct (2004) " Nossel's documentary, produced by Cinemax for its Reel Life series, has touching and instructive moments." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
4/4 100% Mclibel (2005) " Riveting, suspenseful, and a perfect antidote to the too-tricky documentary Super-Size Me." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
4/4 86% Howl's Moving Castle (2005) " It benefits from Miyazaki's abundant visual imagination, which fills the screen with eye-dazzling wonders." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
1/4 41% High Tension (Switchblade Romance) (2005) " Serial killing and other insanity in the French countryside, with ineptly dubbed English dialogue." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
3/4 65% 5x2 (5 x 2: Five Times Two) (2004) " Ozon's drama is compellingly acted and rich in visual ideas, but a bit thin in its psychological approach." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
2/4 20% The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005) " You'll know who the target audience is when you discover the story's setting is called Planet Drool, and the hero is an imaginative schoolboy who joins the title characters to fight the evil Mr. Electric and save the world." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 9, 2005
4/4 77% Or (2004) " Acted and directed with uncommon psychological realism." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 2, 2005
3/4 57% Après vous (After You) (2003) " Garcia is great in this French dramatic comedy, and Auteuil remains one of the great European stars." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 2, 2005
3/4 77% The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) " You may not literally laugh or cry, as the ads promise. But you'll have a good time watching the dream-fulfilling denims make their comic-romantic rounds." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 2, 2005
3/4 —— Les Invisibles (2005) " Humane, unsentimental, eye-opening." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 2, 2005
2/4 39% Milwaukee Minnesota (2003) " A very uneven dark comedy." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 2, 2005
4/4 94% The White Diamond (2004) " Touching, transfixing, unique." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 2, 2005
4/4 80% Cinderella Man (2005) " Ron Howard and his splendid cast have made a spellbinding movie that joins Million Dollar Baby, as well as Raging Bull, the first two Rocky pictures, and Fat City as one of boxing cinema's all-time heavyweight champs." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jun 2, 2005
1/4 55% Madagascar (2005) " Surprisingly clumsy in its efforts to please young and old alike. A major disappointment." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
1/4 31% The Longest Yard (2005) " A quickly paced, slickly filmed entertainment that's also as crude and rude as the PG-13 rating will allow." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
3/4 100% Le Vieil Homme et l'Enfant (The Two of Us) (The Old Man and the Boy) (1967) " Berri made his feature-directing debut with this serious-minded 1967 comedy about a Jewish boy living with an anti-Semitic farmer while evading Nazi terror." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
4/4 83% Sequins (Brodeuses) (A Common Thread) (2005) " Faucher's filmmaking is exquisite, Naymark's acting is luminous, and superb use of music lends a crowning touch." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
3/4 87% Saving Face (2005) " A mother and daughter face romantic complications at the same time in New York City's busy Chinese-American community. Nicely acted." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
4/4 80% The Ninth Day (Der neunte Tag) (2005) " This is moviemaking on the highest dramatic, psychological, and moral plane." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
3/4 91% A League of Ordinary Gentlemen (2005) " While the movie is strong on the history of its subject, it allows some yawns to enter its own account of a big, heavily hyped tournament. Still, it's very entertaining." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
2/4 32% Bomb the System (2003) " Well acted and ably directed, if not very probing about its subject of underclass youth." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 26, 2005
3/4 88% Tell Them Who You Are (2005) " A fascinating glimpse of family love and rivalry, if not a deep-digging documentary." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 19, 2005
3/4 94% 6ixtynin9 (Ruang talok 69) (2000) " Comically grotesque, strikingly filmed." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 19, 2005
4/4 88% Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire (2005) " Wrenching on both personal and political levels." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 19, 2005
4/4 97% Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) (1957) " One of Fellini's finest." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 19, 2005
Showing 51 - 100 of 1078
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