Author Archives: Roger Moore

While most film buffs have seen the post-war classic “Whisky Galore!”, a later comedy by Ealing Studios’ acknowledged Master of Twee and Laird of Laughter, Alexander Mackendrick, might have slipped by you. “The Maggie,” cleverly re-titled “High and Dry” when … Continue reading →

If the production design of the modest-budget space thriller “3022” is particularly impressive — an underlit space station of worn gear, lived-in living spaces and a touch of grime — that’s no accident. David Dean Ebert, art director on TV’s … Continue reading →

May 1… “Mom’s…weird.” “Mom’s always been weird.”

    It’s easy to see why “Celebration,” an intimate working portrait of fashion designer Yves St. Laurent filmed over the last years of his life, was suppressed upon its completion in 2007. It jumps out from the behind-the-scenes sketching, … Continue reading →

Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg play a young couple trapped in a rabbit maze housing development, forced to raise a child dropped on their cookie-cutter house’s doorstep, in “Vivarium,” a quirky science experiment in drama form. Like many a genre … Continue reading →

“Ultras” is a bloody-minded Italian melodrama that asks the eternal question, “Can this soccer hooligan be saved?” For North American viewers, it answers a more important outsider-looking-in query. “What’s all this got to do with futbol (calcio, in Italian), anyway?” … Continue reading →

The big moment of pathos in “Justine” comes courtesy one of the best character actors in the business — Glynn Turman. He’s a supporting player, as he often is, the father of a Marine killed in the Middle East. His … Continue reading →

The trouble with “big twist” thrillers is that you’ve got to have a lot more than twist going for you. Otherwise, the rest of the movie just feels perfunctory. “We Summon the Darkness” is a Satanic murder cult tale that … Continue reading →

Nowadays, there’d be a credit at the beginning of the Ealing Studios classic, “Whisky Galore!” “Inspired by a true story.” But nobody’s needed that rider on this most Scottish of comedies. The people who know that true whisky is spelled … Continue reading →

Two things we’ve been conditioned to expect from the “slow-burn thriller” is that it A) IGNITE at some point, and B) have a certain logic to it. The Spanish drama “The Occupant” doesn’t want to play by those rules. It … Continue reading →