Monthly Archives: January 2025

Movie Preview: Ayo Edebiri, Juliette Lewis and Malkovich and his magnum cult “Opus”

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Roger Moore

Aged and reclusive pop icon comes out of seclusion for an”event” for the “select few.” Have Kanye or Madonna thought of this? The debut feature of Mark Anthony Green is built around a comedy central star, and John Malkovich. March … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Comments Off on Movie Preview: Ayo Edebiri, Juliette Lewis and Malkovich and his magnum cult “Opus”

Movie Review: A 1970 “radical” family working through their issues — “Three Birthdays”

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Radical” politics — sexual, racial and otherwise — Vietnam, the first Earth Day, the sexual revolution, “female solidarity” and Kent State are the backdrop of “Three Birthdays,” a downbeat family melodrama about the day “The Sixties Died.” Writer-director Jane Weinstock … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: A 1970 “radical” family working through their issues — “Three Birthdays”

Documentary Review: An Italian who inspired Tarantino, “Piero Vivarelli: Life as a B-Movie”

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Roger Moore

Piero Vivarelli was an Italian B-movie filmmaker, a “genre” director who dabbled in several genres, most famous (at home) for his musicarello pop and rock movies of the 60s. If you’ve never heard of Rita Pavone, Tony Renis, Mina and … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Documentary Review: An Italian who inspired Tarantino, “Piero Vivarelli: Life as a B-Movie”

Movie Preview: Blaxploitation has its Biggest Afro Yet — Shaina West is “Jade”

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Roger Moore

Two fisted, two-footed, machete-and-pistol-packing Brit Mama “Jade” never backs down from a fight. Especially when she’s caught between rivals — a gangster and a businessman, one of them played by Mickey Rourke. Shaina West is a stunt woman turned action … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Comments Off on Movie Preview: Blaxploitation has its Biggest Afro Yet — Shaina West is “Jade”

Netflixable? Jamie and Cameron skylark through “Back in Action”

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Roger Moore

An absurd script is navigated with brio and professionalism in the “Back in Action” comedy. Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz summon up their old school cool and comical chemistry (“Annie”), Glenn Close trots out an accent and the quips and … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Netflixable? Jamie and Cameron skylark through “Back in Action”

Classic Film Review: James Joyce by John Huston, “The Dead”(1987)

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Roger Moore

You don’t have to get old to truly appreciate John Huston’s elegiac ode to Belle Epoque Ireland and his farewell to the cinema. Wintry, wistful, funereal and poetic, James Joyce’s “The Dead” becomes a simple, short and beautiful postcard from … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Classic Film Review: James Joyce by John Huston, “The Dead”(1987)

Movie Preview: Amy Schumer and Jillian Bell, which one is “Kinda Pregnant?”

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Roger Moore

Good to see Schumer back. Has she, uh, mellowed? Does parenthood cure “Trainwreck?” Feb. 5

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Comments Off on Movie Preview: Amy Schumer and Jillian Bell, which one is “Kinda Pregnant?”

Movie Review: Colman Domingo plays an inmate with theatre in his blood at “Sing Sing”

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Roger Moore

Colman Domingo and the humanizing act of making theatre co-star in “Sing Sing,” a sometimes moving and often entertaining dramedy about prison inmates who just want to “put on a show.” Domingo and a couple of other professional actors, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: Colman Domingo plays an inmate with theatre in his blood at “Sing Sing”

Movie Review: Tragic, Scandalous and Recent History Remembered — “Nickel Boys”

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Roger Moore

In “Nickel Boys,” first-time feature director RaMell Ross almost overwhelms performance with technique. Characters are obscured, faces hidden, glimpsed from the legs down to their shoes, passing by in the blur of memory. By the time we set our eyes … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: Tragic, Scandalous and Recent History Remembered — “Nickel Boys”

Movie Review: Awards contending “The Brutalist” punches above its weight

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Roger Moore

“The Brutalist” is a brutally smart drama for a brutally stupid age. Brady Corbet’s American saga touches on everything from classism and racism to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust as its hero staggers along the jagged edge of American capitalism as … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: Awards contending “The Brutalist” punches above its weight