Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Netflixable? June Squibb is “Eleanor the Great”

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Roger Moore

Timing, especially in comedy, is everything. But Sony Pictures Classics had no way of knowing that its Oscar-campaigned Jewish Holocaust dramedy “Eleanor the Great” would come out in the middle of worldwide outrage at an ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Deported” should have been Stopped at the Border

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Roger Moore

There’s something almost criminal about Amazon acquiring the 2020 immigration “comedy” “Deported,” and passing it off as a “new” “2026” release on their streaming service. There hasn’t been a good time to unleash a raunchy, tone deaf and whitewashed farce … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Tipsy Italians talk a lad into “The Last One for the Road”

Posted on April 21, 2026 by Roger Moore

“The Last One for the Road” is a seemingly aimless drunken drive through northern Italy, a picaresque misadventure in a minor key about a Neopolitan kid, fresh out of college, being taught “the meaning of life.” Francesco Sossai’s curious gambole … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Coogan and Bird Charm their Way through a Class on Fascism — “The Penguin Lessons”

Posted on April 20, 2026 by Roger Moore

No English speaking actor in film is better at making caddish and insufferably self-absorbed charming than Steve Coogan. That proves to be a saving grace of “The Penguin Lessons,” a sweet saunter through a true story of a rescued bird … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Bacon and Sedgwick remind us to do “The Best You Can”

Posted on April 19, 2026 by Roger Moore

Any team-up of one of the cinema’s most enduring off-camera couples, Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, should be cherished. They’re both so very good and “natural” doesn’t begin to describe their onscreen chemistry together. They’re as close as Hollywood gets … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Wahlberg and Hauser go “Balls Up” in Brazil

Posted on April 16, 2026 by

The latest Peter Farrelly of The Farrelly Bros. comedy is a tale of condoms, testicular protection, the South American cocaine trade, the World Cup and two doofuses who find one “fine mess” after another to get themselves into. “Balls Up” … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: Fallopian Furies Fondly Remembered — “Pretty Ugly: The Story of the Lunachicks”

Posted on April 16, 2026 by

A fun and furious phenomenon of the ’90s New York punk scene is given its due and another faint glimpse of the spotlight in “Pretty Ugly: The Story of the Lunachicks,” a wry, wizened and not remotely bitter doc about … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Mayhem and Murder and the Japanese Mafia Greet Odenkirk in “Normal,” Minnesota

Posted on April 15, 2026 by

What a time to be alive and a witness to Bob Odenkirk, the Badass Years. The “Mr. Show” alumnus and ex-“Saturday Night Live” writer, a bit player on every sitcom from “Seinfeld” to “How I Met Your Mother” tapped into … Continue reading →

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Series Review: More Fun with Dysfunction with Dan Levy — “Big Mistakes”

Posted on April 14, 2026 by

Dysfunction Junction is somewhere in the career-criminal packed suburbs of northern New Jersey in Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott’s “Big Mistakes,” a harder-edged, over-plotted way of covering the same ground as “Schitt’s Creek,” with little of the charm. Bingeing this … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Timeless, Topical, Dated and Dizzy Debacle — “Rosebud” (1975)

Posted on April 14, 2026 by

One of the most formative books from my movie fanatic youth was Theodore Gershuny’s “Soon to be a Major Motion Picture: The Anatomy of an All-Star, Big-Budget Multi-Million Dollar Disaster.” Gershuny’s on-set/in-the-studio observation of the making of Otto Preminger’s greatest … Continue reading →

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