Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Classic Film Review: Boris and Bela in Old Edinburgh — “The Body Snatcher” (1945)

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Roger Moore

Censored and edited to death and long thought “lost” in its original form, “The Body Snatcher” is a 1945 horror tale that retains its ability to chill you to the bone. Produced by horror impressario Val Lewton (“Cat People”), directed … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? A French “Jumanji” with time-travel and werewolves — “Family Pack”

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Family Pack” is a slick, silly, hot-mess of a fantasy comedy, a French “Jumanji” based on a French board game. A French family — including aged, forgetful Grandpa (the great Jean Reno) — tempts fate by playing an old, carved … Continue reading →

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Movie Preview: Peter Sarsgaard is Roone Arledge at the Munich Olympics — “September 5”

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Roger Moore

A terrorist attack on the ’72 Munich Olympics Village and ABC…Sports is there. A behind the scenes thriller about how TV responded to a live event of global implications, this looks solid if not star studded. If you’re wondering about … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “We Live in Time” and Weep — Just in no Particular Order

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Roger Moore

“We Live in Time” is an old-fashioned weeper, a “Love Story” with a British accent with a “meet cute” and falling hard and Big Dreams and tragedy just around the corner. But director John Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne tell … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Venom: The Last Dance,” and Thank God for That

Posted on October 25, 2024 by Roger Moore

Well, that’s enough of THAT, thank-you very much. Maybe now that the steadily deteriorating Marvel franchise “Venom” has stuck out its tooth-ringed tongue one last time, we can get our Tom Hardy back. The actor who made his mark in … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Switzerland’s Oscar contender has a Peruvian flavor — “Reinas”

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Roger Moore

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences changed its “Best Foreign Language Film” category at the Oscars to “Best International Feature,” it was designed to make the Academy Awards seem less Hollywood-centric, less like “English” was the official … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Child’s turn as Robinson Crusoe in “Kensuke’s Kingdom”

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Kensuke’s Kingdom” is a simply but attractively animated film based on a Michael Morpurgo novel. The novel, in turn, is based on the classic tale “Robinson Crusoe,” here modernized to place a shipwrecked boy and his dog in tropical paradise, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Glenn Close stars in a “Beach Read” that might cure insomnia — “The Summer Book”

Posted on October 23, 2024 by Roger Moore

“The Summer Book” is a picturesque period piece based on a novel Tove Jannson wrote, inspired by her own experiences living on an island in the Gulf of Finland. It aims for “lyrical” and “meditative” as it tells the story … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Grifter Dramedy Urtext –“Elegant Beast” (1962)

Posted on October 23, 2024 by Roger Moore

Before “Parasite,” before “Shoplifters,” and even before “The Grifters,” there was the darkly comic Japanese morality play “Elegant Beast,” which makes the old W.C. Fields saying, “You can’t cheat an honest man” universal. Yûzô Kawashima’s 1962 film, titled “Shitoyakana kedamono,” … Continue reading →

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Movie Preview: An Adrien Brody epic in Ayn Randian Tones — “The Brutalist”

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Roger Moore

Actor turned director and co-writer Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”) named the hero of his immigrant saga Lazlo Toth, the name of the fellow who busted up a famous statue way back when. Not the same fellow, but what’s really interesting … Continue reading →

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