About Me
Stephen Zelnick grew up in Philadelphia, the child of immigrant parents, and attended city schools, movie theaters, and the local city university. He earned a Ph.D from the University of Illinois and returned to become a professor at Temple University. He retired in 2011. His life has been wonderfully various — truck driver, amusement park ride mechanic, jazz musician, newspaper editor, university administrator — and filled with marriages, children, love and errors. He lived for several years in Puerto Rico, worked and traveled in Central Asia, and now resides in Santa Cruz, CA. After eighty years, he claims the right to be opinionated – engaged politically, not entirely liberated and tamed to contemporary tolerances, with deep thought and sly humor.
An Unusual Book
to Start Off With
Dreaming in the Dark reviews 125 films devoured during the COVID isolation and published first for the amusement of Facebook friends. The reviews follow the essay tradition of reflections on life, with an effort to reproduce experiencing the film and personal recollections. What did the film mean in its historical moment and for us now? Movies are more than entertainments and distractions. How do these films inspire us to live better lives and work for a better world? The films are the great ones of the classic era (1940-1980), from Hollywood, but also from Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, and the UK. We love these films and for good reasons.
Publications
Testimonials
"As a filmmaker and a film professor, I love reading Steve Zelnick's film reviews. He writes eloquently with the brain of an academic but there is no mistaking that the beauty of his words comes from the heart of a true film-lover."
David Greenberg
University of the Arts has over 25 years of professional screenwriting work and nearly 20 years of university-level teaching experience, as well as feature producing and directing
“Wonderful film reviews … crisply written, lucidly constructed, and critically insightful. Most of all, it is like listening to an old friend and hearing about something I should see or if seen already seen again. I never get the sense of abstraction or academic filler. I plan to buy the collection for myself, though I believe I have read the reviews on FB, and also buy copies to send to friends. I am so delighted you are doing this.”
Daniel O’Hara
Temple University, is Emeritus Professor of English, with a specialty in Modernism and celebrated for his work on the poetry of Yeats
“Now, I need to make a copy of your essay, find “8 ½” and see all the nuances I missed when first seeing it many moons of life experiences ago. I am always mesmerized by what and the way you write. You are blessed with eyes wide open.”
Francine Raggi,
retired CUNY Faculty and good Facebook friend
“Steve’s reviews are insightful, deep and well thought out!!”
Bruce Bratton
Editor of Bratton Online, a weekly news and arts journal
“Steve Zelnick is my kind of film reviewer: Perceptive. Intelligent. No holds barred. He reviews films that I want to see (or see again), films by edgy directors like Lynch (Twin Peaks), and Fellini (8 /12) - films that matter.”
Alexis Rhone Fancher
author of BRAZEN and The Dead Kid Poems.
“Fine reviews … Zelnick captures the feel.”
Tom Southall
Facebook reader
“Zelnick’s film reviews are impressive deep-focus snapshots. They combine openness to cinematic pleasure with hermeneutical rigor identifying the sources of that pleasure. Zelnick tackles acknowledged masterpieces (sometimes bravely exposing defects) and hidden gems (ferreting out their virtues). Even when one disagrees, one learns from him something new in the process.
Robert Zaslavsky
Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and celebrated teacher
“I watched some of these movies as a teenager. I was mesmerized then, but I had a different understanding at the time. Your excellent reviews brings back memories of “King Solomon’s Mines,” “Platoon,” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” and now I am watching them from perspectives you provided. I am glad I read your crisp and detailed commentary. It made me understand the background, and gist of the films.”
Ruby Ahmed
devoted to human rights
“Have faithfully followed Zelnick’s reviews. It will be terrific to have them collected and organized.
Robert Lee
novelist, The Fall of Jack Edgerton ; Every 4th Tuesday, and other stories
Dreaming in the Dark is a perfect title for Steve Zelnick’s book on movie classics. He reviews not only movies we’ve seen and loved, but goodies we’ve somehow missed. We get sketches of actors, directors, scenes shot in various places, how the whole magic of great films happens. Steve’s writing is immediate. He pulls us right in and makes us want to go back to these classics we love. From the dark shadows of film noir to the sunshine of the comedies, Steve is always right there with intelligence and good humor
ShirleyAnn Gaines
artist and photographer