Monthly Archives: April 2025

Classic Film Review: A Ken Loach dip into Dickensiana — “Black Jack” (1979)

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Roger Moore

Ken Loach built his career on films of protest, depicting the oppressed of many places and many eras in their struggle against their oppressors. The Brit’s “socialist realism” was obvious from his breakthrough English working class classic “Kes,” with the … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? “Frozen Hot Boys” ice-sculpt their way to glory

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Frozen Hot Boys” is a Thai “Cool Runnings,” a cringy goof of a fish-out-of-water comedy about tropical trouble-makers who make a name for themselves in competitive ice and snow sculpting. Natapohn Tameeruks is Miss Chom, a bored vocational wood-carving teacher … Continue reading →

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Movie Preview: Dennis Quaid’s raised a rodeo rider (Wyatt Russell) who’s “Broke” in more ways than one

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Roger Moore

Mary McDonnell, Tom Skerritt and Auden Thornton also star in this direct-to-streaming modern day Western from the director of “The Signal.” May 6.

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Movie Preview: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler in Ari Aster’s “Eddington”

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Roger Moore

A pointed political parable about the schism that’s caused America’s downfall, a microcosm of hate, violence and decline set in “Eddington,” New Mexico. “Coming soon?” Sure. But as the fact that it’s set in 2020 makes clear, it’s already here.

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Movie Preview: Kroll & Rannells play a gay couple whose Italian vacay goes ever so wrong — “I Don’t Understand You”

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Roger Moore

They’re celebrating their anniversary and the arrival of their baby. Things go deathly wrong. More than once. Nick Kroll and Rannells, of “The Prom” and “The Intern,” make it work. This is one cute looking dark comedy. Look for it … Continue reading →

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BOX OFFICE: “Minecraft” mines more, “King of Kings” opens big, “Amateur” goes pro, “Warfare” cashes in, “Drop” sinks

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Roger Moore

Chicken Jockey mania continues at the nation’s multiplexes. No. Seriously. And that is driving “A Minecraft Movie” into the cinematic stratosphere, a runaway hit that should clear $80 million this weekend, when earlier projections had pointed towards a $65 million … Continue reading →

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The One Thing “Drop” and “The Amateur” have in common? The “Saab” Getaway

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

Maybe you’ve got to be a car guy-or-pronoun-of-your-choice to notice it. But Thursday afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice that the first-date/widowed mom under threat who’s got to make a dash home to save her kid and her babysitting kid … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A First Date Dominated by a Cell Phone and a Stranger’s “Drop”

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

A tony, high-rise restaurant filled with potential suspects, any one of whom might “airdrop” the threats and blackmailed instructions for a murder onto our shocked and frantic heroine’s cell phone, is the setting and plot of “Drop,” a middling horror … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Malek schemes and turns the screws as “The Amateur”

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

A good cast and a clever variation of the man with “particular skills” revenge thriller formula make “The Amateur” an often entertaining slice of spy games hokum. Rami Malek stars as a CIA crypto analayst and tinkerer who becomes obsessed … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Modern “Warfare,” up close and impersonal

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

The big selling point of “Warfare” is its recreation of the “reality” of combat in the Middle East by a former Navy SEAL who was there. But there have been scores of documentaries made by embedded filmmakers who detailed the … Continue reading →

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