Monthly Archives: November 2024

Movie Review: Cillian Murphy’s an Irishman Haunted by the Cruelty of the Magdalene Laundries — “Small Things Like These”

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Roger Moore

There have been more emotional films about the great shame of modern Ireland, the state’s complicity with the Catholic church’s infamous “Magdalene Laundries, which imprisoned pregnant young women in convents, forced them to work for convent for-profit laundry services and … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Eastwood’s made a creaky court case built around “Juror #2”

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Roger Moore

Maybe the answer to “Why did Warner Brothers barely release Clint Eastwood’s ‘final film?” was that it’s just not very good. “Juror # 2” is competently cast, acted, shot and put together. But the script is melodramatic to the point … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Dumb action gets dumber, “Get Fast”

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Stupid is as stupid does,” and stupid’s entirely the point of “Get Fast,” a dumber-than-dumb action pic that sets out to prove how much movie you can make with pretty much no script at all. Catch-phrases and stock characters, a … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Elliot Page stars in a Transgender Homecoming — “Close to You”

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Roger Moore

The Canadian drama “Close to You” is a quiet, contemplative and yet deflatingly unsurprising homecoming story about an unhappy, maladjusted daughter who returns to his former home and former life after gender reassignment treatment. It stars the transgender actor Elliot … Continue reading →

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Movie Preview: Aging and about to be unemployed, Pamela Anderson is “The Last Showgirl”

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Roger Moore

Gia Coppola directed, Brenda Song, Billie Lourd, Dave Bautista and Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis co-star. This “final performance” Vegas showgirl tale has vulnerability and a little cachet, with Anderson back from the dead and a decent supporting cast. This … Continue reading →

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Movie Preview: Zambian family ponders life and death and old secrets — “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Roger Moore

Writer-director Rungano Nyoni took a top prize for this quirky drama that immerses us in a Zambian family, it’s secrets and suspicions and superstitions and funeral rituals. Mar. 7, from A24.

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Movie Review: A French “Robin Hood” robber enjoys “Freedom,” between heists and prison time

Posted on November 16, 2024 by Roger Moore

The ambitiously titled “Freedom” is a heist picture that makes more promises than it keeps. The latest feature from actress turned director Mélanie Laurent (“Now You See Me,” “The Flood”) sets up as a French Robin Hood tale of an … Continue reading →

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BOX OFFICE: “Red One” bombs, “Heretic” thrives, “A Real Pain” opens wide, “Christmas Pageant” abides

Posted on November 16, 2024 by Roger Moore

Ill-conceived, as many a Christmas “action comedy” has been, the Dwayne Johnson/Chris Evans/J.K. Simmons “Santa’s security detail” romp “Red One” earned dismissive reviews and a great big yawn from filmgoers. Whoever thought a $200-250 million movie about threats to Santa … Continue reading →

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Movie Preview: Ben Stiller hits the upstaged-by-kids “Holiday Comedy” stage of his career —  “Nutcrackers”

Posted on November 15, 2024 by Roger Moore

Everything in this trailer moans “Tired” and “played.” Linda Cardinelli co stars in this “fostering little monsters” comedy. This looks like something our lad Ben might have been in 30 years ago. Nov. 29 on Hulu.

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Classic Film Review: Hitchcock becomes “Hitch” — “The 39 Steps” (1935)

Posted on November 15, 2024 by Roger Moore

While he was alive, critics had little trouble finding ways to discount Alfred Hitchcock’s genius and underrate his later decades of entertaining, bubbly and even chilling thrillers. Because that generation of reviewers remembered “The 39 Steps.” This 1935 romp of … Continue reading →

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