Author Archives: Roger Moore

Boy, did we need this one. “Herself” is an uplifting real world drama in classic weeper/wish-fulfillment fantasy clothes, a story of pluck and heart, violence and sadness. And if you ever needed a good cry… The latest film from the … Continue reading →

The sorts of screen comedies that “travel” well — that play well pretty much anywhere — are slapstick and slap-happy, quick with a gag and quick witted. The Spanish farces of Pedro Almodovar are hilarious around the world, for instance. … Continue reading →

They meet in a minor act of gallantry. Both are to pile into a pickup truck that will smuggle them deep into Thailand. One will ride in front, others have to hide, lying flat, in the false bed in the … Continue reading →

Creepy looking horror tale headed our way in Feb.

Murder, pedophilia, blackmail and morbid obesity figure into the plot of “Wade into the Water,” an odd and intriguing debut feature from director Mark Wilson and screenwriter Chris Retts. It’s “Taxi Driver” meets “Napoleon Dynamite” — a quirky, dark mystery-thriller. … Continue reading →

Here’s a charmless little nothing riff on “Sweet Home Alabama” starring nobody you ever heard of and filmed in everybody’s second-favorite Beaufort, the one in South Carolina. “Stars Fell on Alabama” takes its title from a Big Band era ballad, … Continue reading →

A young woman’s flinty, brooding recovery from the devastation of losing a baby is the beating heart of “Pieces of a Woman,” an intimate if somewhat problematic melodrama from the Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó (“White God”) and his frequent collaborator, … Continue reading →

Yes, this is an interesting biography to finish off in the middle of a racist/treasonous coup attempt, but there you go. And since Spike Lee and Denzel’s bio-pic hagiography on the same subject is still worth watching, I thought I’d … Continue reading →

The camera tracks down what is unmistakably a young woman’s naked back as the voice of Stephen Fry, throwing himself into an amusing dudgeon, reads from the letters of the puzzle print-maker M.C. Escher, griping about “the hippies in San … Continue reading →

“Cicada Song” is a sometimes compelling mystery-thriller set in America’s heartland, a missing persons story set in remote, rural Missouri. The feature debut of writer-director Michael Starr has many of the requisite ingredients of a solid indie outing — a … Continue reading →