Author Archives: Roger Moore

What a difference a title makes, right? I mean, who’s going to buy tickets to a screen romance titled “Holding Pattern.” This thin, slow Jake Goldberger dramedy sat in cinema limbo until somebody had the bright idea of re-titling it … Continue reading →

“Thor: Ragnarok” is the best-reviewed Marvel movie. Ever. On Rottentomatoes, anyway. On the more discerning and nuanced Metacritic, most everyone still says they liked it. “Love?” Let’s not get carried away, here. As many have pointed out, it makes little … Continue reading →

Greta Gerwig has matured out of playing the adorable, quirky, self-absorbed with self-invention young women of “Hannah Takes the Stairs” and “Damsels in Distress.” In film after film, she’s let us see the social;y striving — posh, put-on accents, affected … Continue reading →

“Tragedy Girls” is a “Heathers” for the social media age. Or that’s its aim. Director/co-writer Tyler MacIntyre takes aim at a youth culture that’s all about “likes” and page-views and branding, and parks a couple of pretty, heartless horror fangirls right in … Continue reading →

The first “Saw” movie had a minimalist sophistication — strangers, waking up together, presented with life-or-death choices as an unseen tormentor sat in judgement of whether they were fit to live. Everything that followed, sequels and the whole “torture porn” … Continue reading →

Now that Halloween has passed, it’s not too early for Hollywood to unleash its first Christmas comedy. But there’s never a good time to release a bad one. Nothing like celebrating the holidays with a puerile, sentimental and foul-mouthed slapstick … Continue reading →

Lyndon Johnson was a tall man, 6’4.” He had a habit of leaning into colleagues and subordinates, towering over them, intimidating even in the friendliest of circumstances. And as he had a temper and a mania for hard work, wheeling … Continue reading →

So Louis wants to do a Woody Allen homage, playing a movie director in a black and white comedy about a somewhat pretentious, arty movie director. Ick. So the guy’s got a nubile, bikini clad (often as not) teen daughter … Continue reading →

“Lifetime Original Movie” is glib, pejorative criticspeak that no movie with a female protagonist and women-centric subject matter wants as a label. And I might add, that no critic wants to use when the movie’s subject is rape and its … Continue reading →

Actor turned writer-director Jason Hall (he scripted “American Sniper”) returns to Iraq War veteran subject matter with “Thank You for Your Service,” an oddly unaffecting portrait of damaged soldiers trying to break back into civilian life. He goes for veracity … Continue reading →