Author Archives: Roger Moore

A critic-friend I’ve sat on several film festival panels with over the years once explained to a questioner from the audience the difference between critics and filmgoers. Most movie fans only go to films that interest them, genres, franchises, etc. … Continue reading →

“X” doesn’t reinvent one of the most popular, time-tested horror genres so much as breathe a little life into it. That “promiscuous young folks go slumming in rural America and get themselves slaughtered” plot feels seriously worn-out. But writer-director Ti … Continue reading →

The action romp “The Lost City” is an inferior version of almost every single adventure comedy it steals from. But that’s the joke here, and it plays. Because there’s a lot of stealing going on in this multi-hand script, all-star … Continue reading →

An Oscar-nominated actress completes her “Naomi vs. Nature” trilogy with “Infinite Storm,” a psychological battle against the primal elements starring Naomi Watts. As in “The Impossible,” her character — a 50something New Hampshire search-and-rescue hiker named Pam Bales — faces … Continue reading →

A properly spooky coming-of-age in a house where something just isn’t right story, “You Are Not My Mother” delivers supernatural chills with an Irish accent. The frights are muted, but the air of dread that hangs over Irish writer-director Kate … Continue reading →

Today’s Around the World with Netflix offering is a sentimental Turkish weeper about an adorable child, his dying mom and the man she pursues so that she can leave her son “In Good Hands.” If the film, titled “Sen Yasamaya … Continue reading →

A couple of lines and gestures give away the game in “Madelines,” a horror comedy with a time travel twist. There’s a campiness to one of the performances, a goof or two that gives away how seriously they’re going to … Continue reading →

As exercises, it has been incredibly tempting for filmmakers to figure out movies they could make while locked-down, “shelter-in-place” and what-not during the global pandemic. The limitations in cast and restrictions in locations narrowed the range of stories that can … Continue reading →

The great Taiwanese-American Ang Lee made a most auspicious if little-seen feature directing debut with “Pushing Hands,” a sentimental dramedy about an old tai chi master whose move to New York goes anything but smoothly. After a decade of making … Continue reading →

The set-up for this “Around the World with Netflix” presentation is every bit as simple as that headline. A gorgeous workaholic Spanish architect (Maxi Iglesias) is sent to Cuzco, Peru, to pick a spot, secure property and build a “seven … Continue reading →