Author Archives: Roger Moore

“Outside In” is a quiet, contemplative melodrama about starting over and the obstacles facing an ex-con fresh out of a 20 year stretch in prison. The script that director Lynn Shelton (“Humpday,” “Your Sister’s Sister”) co-wrote with her fellow “mumblecore” … Continue reading →

It varies from family to family, the one member everybody calls “the rock,” “the glue” that seems to hold them all together. And when that glue is gone, it can seem as if gravity itself has failed. Members spin off, … Continue reading →

The shrinking importance of the North American box office to Hollywood is underlined by the increasing number of films that open overseas before making their bow in the U.S. “Ready Player One,” which cost in the $175 million range, will … Continue reading →

I don’t know what it is about Saab convertibles and movie road trips. But it’s a “car with character,” as in it says something about the owner, movie shorthand. Volvos and Saabs? Typically driven by academic characters in the movies. … Continue reading →

I grade big screen cartoons for kids on a sliding cynicism scale. They’re all products designed for and marketed to children, and most every studio has a deal with some animation house or other to get themselves a cut-rate piece … Continue reading →

Marvel has been taking movies in a video game Easter Egg “nothing but the fun parts” direction for the past decade. But leave it to the Old Master, Mr. Spielberg, to beat them to the punch and make a movie … Continue reading →

Not every deserving person can win the Nobel Peace Prize. There are other, lesser forms of “laureate,” for instance the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. But even had Dr. Tom Catena not won that, it seems the least society can … Continue reading →

“Isle of Dogs” is the stuff of Wes Anderson’s nightmares. Anderson’s made a Japanese epic as viewed through the twee lens in which he sees the world. A dark, daft vision of a culture that’s Turned its Back on Dog, … Continue reading →

Martin Luther King, Jr. was often introduced, as he was in his final “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech in Memphis the night before he died, as “a Moses for our times.” He was eulogized at his funeral as a … Continue reading →

Judd Apatow, who regarded the late comic master Garry Shandling as a mentor, produced and directed this documentary — adding interviews with comics who knew Garry and worked with him (Sarah Silverman, Jim Carrey) to vintage Shandling stand-up, “The Larry … Continue reading →