Author Archives: Roger Moore

Any list of the best vengeance thrillers of recent vintage has to include Park Chan-Wook’s “Oldboy” andHans Petter Moland’s “In Order of Disappearance.” Add your favorite here, because there are lots of examples through film history, movies about a great … Continue reading →

The company is Hungarian, pressed into service with their German allies occupying a corner of the partially-conquered Soviet Union during World War II. But as they troop through the dreary woods, drifting from one fraught encounter with the locals to … Continue reading →

If you’ve ever seen a Kevin Costner interview or heard an acceptance speech from him, you know his “movie that changed my life” was the big, bloated Cinerama Western “How the West was Won,” an all-star epic that took viewers … Continue reading →

That’s Willa Holland, Dermot Mulroney and Shane West starring in a honky tonks and Chevy Chevelles and small town corruption and cover-ups. “The Dirty South” indeed.

Mesmerizing from its crypto-poetic opening to its drop the mike finale, “Candela” is a thriller as exotic and mysterious as its locale, a brisk and atmospheric tale bathed in drugs, sex and corruption. First-time feature director Andrés Farías and his … Continue reading →

The best survival narratives, from “Robinson Crusoe” through “The Martian” all focus on “work the problem” details. How do you survive a shipwreck or sailboat sinking (“All is Lost,” “Dead Calm”), being trapped in a forest fire, being marooned on … Continue reading →

Oct 13, a bunch of streaming ghost hunters get more than they bargained for.

A lush and savory period piece about a love affair, perhaps unconsummated (Over the consumme? Mon dieu!), this “Best International Feature” submission from France will hit theaters in Feb.

I remember liking the book, about rowing and the 1936 Hitler Olympics that Jesse Owens ruined for the Austrian corporal. I also remember when “George Clooney directs” ginned up a lot of buzz. He’s taken on another history lesson, but … Continue reading →

The most chilling consideration in “The Royal Hotel,” a tense tale of two Canadian 20somethings stuck in a mining town bar in the middle of Toxic Masculinity, Australia, is how nothing that happens there seems the least bit far fetched. … Continue reading →