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:
1081
Location:
New York, NY

Best Reviewed Films

Showing 1 - 50 of 996
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
4/4 100% Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) (1954) " The legendary Mifune leads a superb cast, and Kurosawa's kinetic camera keeps the adventure sizzling with energy and wit from start to finish." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 26, 2013
4/4 83% Performance (1970) " It put Roeg's powerful cinematic style on the cultural map for the first time." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 25, 2013
4/4 100% Toy Story 2 (1999) " It's playtime for viewers of all ages." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Aug 6, 2012
4/4 95% Le Cercle Rouge (1970) " A glistening gem among caper movies." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 3, 2008
4/4 95% Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) (1964) " It offers 10 times more pleasures than the average picture." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Mar 3, 2008
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
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
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
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
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
4/4 100% Il conformista (The Conformist) (1970) " Trintignant gives a legendary performance." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted Jul 28, 2005
4/4 57% Last Days (2005) " A true American tragedy, directed with skill and conviction." — 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
4/4 94% Wheel of Time (2003) " Riveting and unique." — 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
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
4/4 100% Edvard Munch (1994) " A masterly biopic." — 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
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
4/4 77% Or (2004) " Acted and directed with uncommon psychological realism." — 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
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
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
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
4/4 30% Dominion - Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) " The material is right up Schrader's alley, and while his vision of the first 'Exorcist' chapter isn't a masterpiece, it's far superior to the Renny Harlin prequel to The Exorcist." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 19, 2005
4/4 76% The Holy Girl (La Nina Santa) (2005) " Smart, subtle drama about an Argentine teenager who tries to reconcile her sincere religious questions with the temptations of worldly life." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 12, 2005
4/4 88% Rois et Reine (Kings and Queen) (2005) " It's hugely ambitious, with a sweeping range of character types, frequently shifting moods, stylistic flourishes of many kinds, and some mighty wry satire, aimed largely at the world of psychotherapy." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 12, 2005
4/4 84% Mysterious Skin (2005) " This thoughtful, troubling drama is leagues above the sensationalistic stuff Araki peddled in earlier films." — Christian Science Monitor
Posted May 5, 2005
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