Tag Archives: documentary-review

Classic Film Review: Diane Keaton’s lone doc directing credit, “Heaven” (1987) earns a restoration/re-release

Posted on November 8, 2025 by Roger Moore

The recent passing of Oscar winning actress Diane Keaton is reason enough to revisit one of her few directing credits, the lone documentary on her resume. “Heaven,” which she completed and Island Pictures released back in 1987, when Keaton was … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review — “John Candy: I Like Me”

Posted on October 10, 2025 by Roger Moore

Friends, acquaintances and fans still get choked up when the subject of the late Canadian comic wonder John Candy comes up. I’d be talking to Richard Lewis or Ron Howard or Hanks or somebody who worked with Candy and out … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: Entrancing “Trains” is a History of Europe through its Rails and Rolling Stock

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Trains,” the new dialogue-free “found footage” documentary by the Polish filmmaker Maciej Drygas, is one of the most original pieces of movie-making you’re likely to run across. Drygas tells a history of Europe through the first half of the 20th … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? “aka Charlie Sheen” shows us a Bad Boy at 60

Posted on September 13, 2025 by Roger Moore

Here’s a thought. Of the legions of Hollywood offspring who became “nepo baby” movie stars, Charlie Sheen may be the only one to question his status and how he got it, who developed guilt over his fame and even his … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: A Silent Saga of Celluloid, Cinema and Yukon History — “Dawson City: Frozen Time”

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Roger Moore

A mesmirizing movie of film, pop culture and Canadian history, “Dawson City: Frozen Time” slipped by many of us when it earned film festival circuit and limited release back in 2017. But its beauty and breathtaking ambition make it a … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Roger Moore

Filmed appreciations of potentially great artists who “die young and leave a beautiful corpse” are many. If these post mortems have a common thread, it’s the difficulty in separating the myth from the musician, painter, actor or writer. And the … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: Elder Statesmen of Metal recall “Becoming Led Zeppelin”

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Roger Moore

Truncated, authorized and sanitized for your protection, “Becoming Led Zeppelin” offers the tamest take you’ll ever see on the hedonistic heavy metal band that started it all. Director Bernard MacMahon agreed to limit himself to what plays as three grandfatherly … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: “Bonnie Blue: James Cotton’s Life in the Blues”

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Roger Moore

The bluesman James Cotton was the son of a sharecropping Mississippi Baptist preacher and a mother who played the harmonica. And when they died when he was quite young, he picked up his mother’s harmonica and used it to play … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: An Italian who inspired Tarantino, “Piero Vivarelli: Life as a B-Movie”

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Roger Moore

Piero Vivarelli was an Italian B-movie filmmaker, a “genre” director who dabbled in several genres, most famous (at home) for his musicarello pop and rock movies of the 60s. If you’ve never heard of Rita Pavone, Tony Renis, Mina and … Continue reading →

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