Author Archives: Roger Moore

“Players” is a pre-#MeToo rom-com sitcom masquerading as a feature length comedy. It’s a leering, light but never funny and rarely charming throwback about a group of friends who run “plays” to help each other score one-night stands. They get … Continue reading →

The quiet inscrutability of the movies of Flemish filmmaker Bas Devos can be gleaned from their reviews, filled with vague appreciations and words like “unassuming” and “placidity.” Which is the viewer’s clue that the drama depicted is subtle in the … Continue reading →

Ten years after Harmony Korine gave us the downside of becoming “Spring Breakers,” a UK writer-director has given us the subtitled British version. Writer-director Molly Manning Walker’s “How to Have Sex” follows three hedonistic teens on their quest for the … Continue reading →

Dakota Johnson is so miscast, so “off” in the title role of Sony/Marvel’s latest superhero movie that even her side-eyes seems affected, studied and practiced in front of the mirror before anybody yelled “Action!” But co-star Tahir Rahim is so … Continue reading →

“Upgraded” is an almost-frothy rom-com built on a “Devil Wears Prada” framework. A plucky intern at an auction house deals with a tyrannical boss and a new love on a trip to London where she tries to make it in … Continue reading →

There’s no reinventing the wheel when it comes to movies about addiction. We’re all familiar with the “steps” in screenplays that mimic “stages of grief” more than AA’s famous “twelve steps.” Loved ones are tested and abused, impulses are indulged, … Continue reading →

She’s an easy character for anybody who never got too deep into superhero comics to ignore. But when you’re monetizing your assetts at a film production company, no corner of the Spiderverse can be left unexplored. So Sony’s piece of … Continue reading →

Scripted by committee, performed in a nearly-indecipherable Jamaican patois and overseen by his legacy-protecting son Ziggy Marley, you knew the Bob Marley biopic “One Love” was going to have its problems and fall short of the mark in some important … Continue reading →

Impressive effects and a general light-hearted tone give “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman,” a Korean sword, sorcery and ghost-busting action comedy, a fighting chance. It doesn’t quite come off as it cannot avoid the trap of so many comic … Continue reading →

Cynthia Erivo is the witch Elphaba, Arianna Grande is Glinda the “Good Witch,” with Michelle Yeoh, and Jeff Goldblum. No Dorothys are necessary in this version of Mr. Baum’s Oz, remember. Jon M. Chu of “In the Heights” and “Crazy … Continue reading →