Author Archives: Roger Moore

“The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student” works itself into a lather for its finale, briefly becoming a door-slamming farce with a college applicant who faces deportation, his dismayed college admissions interviewer, a cadre of anti-deportation protestors, sheriff’s deputies, a … Continue reading →

The stark desert north of Sudan is realistically and beautifully captured in Amjad Abu Alala’s “You Will Die at Twenty,” a potent parable for life in this war torn and timelessly backward corner of the world. A Sudanese entry in … Continue reading →

Smart sci fi, good cast. This looks good.

A grieving, sullen and silent tween is sent off to visit her Thai grandmother for the summer of “My Best Worst Adventure,” a moving and engaging kids’ movie with just enough hard edge to come off. It has that “Black … Continue reading →

The fundamental problem with any action pic starring Jason Momoa is who can you credibly cast that one could reasonably expect to bring down the Man Mountain? Making his character a mixed martial artist in “Sweet Girl” just compounds that … Continue reading →

Maggie Q returns to “Nikita” territory with “The Protege,” playing a sexy and exotic assassin not unlike her best known TV role. It’s her latest lead, part of a run that included “Fantasy Island,” “Death of Me” and “The Argument,” … Continue reading →

This one streams on Shudder Sept.9, at the start of the Halloween horror season.

Comically flat, emotionally thin but not-entirely-charmless, “Out of My League” is a distinctly Italian take on young love shadowed by terminal illness. Like more than one Italian film that I’ve taken in as we journey “around the world with Netflix,” … Continue reading →

Cary Elwes as a New York Times book critic? Will he survive his encounter with the grizzled, grumpy and soused old coot Caine plays in this Sept. 17 comedy?

They gave Oscar winner Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”) her biggest check, lined up Jolie and Hayek as “names” and pulled together an “X-Men: First Class” sized ensemble of young superheroes to be super-heroic. Gemma Chan, Brian Tyree Henry, Barry Keoghan, Kit … Continue reading →