Monthly Archives: August 2026

Documentary Review: A Classic Film, Controversy, and Wounded Turkish Pride — “Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey”

Posted on August 31, 2026 by Roger Moore

There was a time when movies could create an international furor that could last for years — decades, even. If you think North Korea’s war on Sony over “The Interview,” racist YA sci-fi fans fuming over the fact that Black … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? DeNiro, Monaghan and Scott need answers from “The Whisper Man”

Posted on August 29, 2026 by Roger Moore

Crackling performances and a twisty plot that mixes melodrama with suspense recommend “The Whisper Man,” a new thriller based on an Alex North novel. It’s “Silence of the Lambs” paying homage to “The Slender Man,” a tale of fathers and … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Tony” Bourdain Comes of Age in a Kitchen Bildunsroman

Posted on August 29, 2026 by Roger Moore

Anybody who’s ever done restaurant work knows that you grow up fast in a kitchen. The speed and urgency, the pressure cooker of it all — people thrown together in hot, confined spaces, trying to work in concert with each … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Buddy Comedy with “Idiots”

Posted on August 28, 2026 by Roger Moore

“Idiots” is a buddy comedy with raunchy promise, funny players and no pace. I mean NONE. If this was “Midnight Run,” which it resembles, it’d be “Midnight Stroll.” If it was “The Last Detail,” which also figures in its plotting, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Ridley’s Believe in it, or Don’t — “The Dog Stars”

Posted on August 28, 2026 by Roger Moore

“The Dog Stars” is the sort of movie that late August is infamous for — a dog that the studio couldn’t figure out how to fix or market into a success, so they dumped it on Labor Day Weekend. It’s … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Catfight for the (Middle) Ages — “The Lion in Winter” (1968)

Posted on August 26, 2026 by Roger Moore

It was a gilded age for high-minded British cinema, of larger than life actors taking on epics as heroes and antiheroes — a life of “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Becket,” “Cromwell,” a dash or two of Shakespeare, and “A Man for … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Teresa Palmer obsessively Counts Everything — “Addition”

Posted on August 25, 2026 by Roger Moore

Movies built around mental maladies have a couple of consistent shortcomings, both of which the Teresa Palmer OCD dramedy “Addition” struggles with, start to finish. There’s a tendency to treat something serious as cute and quirky. Obsessively counting everything from … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? “Freefall — A Reckoning for Boeing” celebrates Heroes and Names Villains

Posted on August 24, 2026 by Roger Moore

The new Netflix documentary, “Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing,” is another “Boeing: What Went Wrong/Downfall of Boeing” expose. But this one celebrates the whistleblowers within the airliner manufacturer who sounded the alarm and often paid a price for it as … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Statham at Sea means “Mutiny”

Posted on August 21, 2026 by Roger Moore

When Jason Statham growls, “Trust me, I’m coming back for everybody,” what self-respecting hostage wouldn’t consider themselves as good as rescued? J.Sta’s latest, “Mutiny,” is a “Die Hard” at sea that, thank to “Mesrine” director Jean-François Richet, uses that laybrinthine … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Spa Weekend” is every bit as Bland as it Sounds

Posted on August 21, 2026 by Roger Moore

It turns out, putting the two dudes who scripted “The Hangover” (and “Bad Moms”) in charge of writing and directing a midlife crisis moms at a spa farce wasn’t the smartest move ever. “Spa Weekend” — a title as colorless … Continue reading →

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