Author Archives: Roger Moore

“Race” never figured in the comedies, thrillers and dramas of the great Austrian-American filmmaker Billy Wilder. You can wade through his entire 50 year career and wonder why you never see a Black face. The rest of his industry in … Continue reading →

“True Spirit” is a plucky feel-good tale of a teen girl’s quest to be the youngest to ever sail “Around Alone.” Directed and acted with a light touch, packed with bubbly pop music montages and finished off with a dollop … Continue reading →

Stumbling across this lightly-amusing comedy on Roku, there are certain “truths” that are, as Mr. Jefferson would have noted, “self-evident.” “We Are Not Alone” plays like a sitcom pilot, which it almost certainly is, a 90 minute set up for … Continue reading →

Now THIS is how you cut a feel-good movie trailer with a kid, a cause and wildlife. Radha Mitchell plays the mum, Ilsa Fogg young Abby, Mia Wasikowska as our crusading girl as an adult, and Eric Bana as a … Continue reading →

It’s funny to think about how late Hollywood was in figuring out Walter Matthau was a natural comic actor. For the first couple of decades of his film and TV career, nobody thought to let him go for a laugh. … Continue reading →

Miranda Otto also stars in this “Time Bandits” meets “The Adjustment Bureau” fantasy about a corporation that fiddles with fate via a sort of “Jumpers” gimmick of a door that parks you hither and yon on demand. This Sky TV … Continue reading →

“Millennium Bugs” is a murky look back at Y2K Eve, a comedy that struggles to find laughs in end-of-the-90s fashions, slang and panic over what the world might look like when computers glitch as the year 2000 begins. It’s a … Continue reading →

I’ve developed a passion for Spanish police procedurals. Or rather, Netflix’s “What you should try next” algorithm has. And I’m OK with that, as it’s a genre the Spanish cinema has a good handle on, and these “Around the World … Continue reading →

As you can tell from her photograph, actress Nell Barlow exudes Big Mary Elizabeth Winstead energy in “Sweetheart,” a light British rom-com about coming of age when you’re gay, confused and in your teens. It’s a pity her character April, … Continue reading →

This looks like a real Rod Serling/Stephen King freakout. And in a good way. Feb. 10