Tag Archives: books

Documentary Review: “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation,” a Writer, a Book, a Legend and a Legacy

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Roger Moore

Natalie Merchant, the singer and songwriter of “Hey Jack Kerouac” among other hits, thinks that one reads and is swept up by his novel “On the Road” when young because “You’re kid of wired for it in adolescence.” The actor, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Maine Lobsterman can’t escape “The Ghost Trap” of his life

Posted on July 5, 2025 by Roger Moore

A script that leans into melodrama and wildly uneven performances are the undoing of “The Ghost Trap,” an immersive peek into Maine lobstering life and the people who live it. Zak Steiner and others in the cast doing the baiting, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Broadbent “walks 500 miles” in “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry”

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Roger Moore

Oscar winner Jim Broadbent earns a fine showcase in “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,” a sweet story of grief, regret, obligations and the kindness of strangers. It’s based on a novel by Rachel Joyce that seems inspired by any … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Brit Baby Boomer lost in His Own World — “Billy Liar” (1963)

Posted on June 17, 2025 by Roger Moore

Falling into “Billy Liar” is no easy feat, even for a film buff, over sixty years after it was released. It’s been included in more than one list of “the 100 Best British Films Ever Made,” albeit in the bottom … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Emma and Hugh and Kate and Rickman and Austen and Ang Lee, “Sense and Sensibility” (1995)

Posted on June 7, 2025 by Roger Moore

Watching any movie with Jane Austen ties inevitably sends me back to at least one of my favorites among the films and TV series based on her works. “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” was no exception. It wouldn’t be “Emma” … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A writer, her mentor and “The Friend” Great Dane who takes over her life

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Roger Moore

You might have to be a dog lover to truly engage and “get” “The Friend,” a melancholy meditation on suicide, loss, character and our obligations to someone who has killed himself. And if you’re unsure about the depth of your … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? A Disabled Child, a Mom Determined to Save Him — “Lucca’s World”

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Roger Moore

A guilt-ridden journalist tries everything, grasping at any “miracle treatments” straw, in an effort to save her disabled-at-birth son in “Lucca’s World,” an engrossing Around the World with Netflix weeper from Mexico. Based on the non-fiction book by Bárbara Anderson, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A 1970 “radical” family working through their issues — “Three Birthdays”

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Radical” politics — sexual, racial and otherwise — Vietnam, the first Earth Day, the sexual revolution, “female solidarity” and Kent State are the backdrop of “Three Birthdays,” a downbeat family melodrama about the day “The Sixties Died.” Writer-director Jane Weinstock … Continue reading →

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Series Review: Tom Wolfe’s “A Man in Full” becomes an Oversexed Cracker Cartoon for Netflix

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Roger Moore

Tom Wolfe’s darkly comic 1998 novel “A Man in Full” comes to the screen, courtesy of another king of ’80s and ’90s entertainment, TV writer/producer David E. Kelley. The book, uneven but page-turning trash encompassing Wolfe’s favorite themes — class, … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? “Girl Haunts Boy,” a teen romance for tweens

Posted on December 28, 2024 by Roger Moore

Here’s an exceptionally mild-mannered Netflix teen romance built around a couple of cute young leads made “stars” by earlier Netflix outings. Peyton List (“Kobra Kai”) plays a flapper teen who swipes a magic ring and dies in 1928, only to … Continue reading →

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