Tag Archives: film

Movie Review: Stephen King commits (Amusing-ish) Murder via a Wind-Up Toy — “The Monkey”

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Roger Moore

The blood and guts of “The Monkey” is played for laughs in Osgood Perkins’ film of Stephen King’s monstrous wind-up toy thriller. It’s a heavy-handed, staggering splatter comedy with random laughs mixed with random slaughter, all of it cast and … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Coming-of-Age Asian American — “Didi”

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Didi” is a gentle but sharp-edged tale of a California teen coming to terms with who he is, a movie that invites grimaces of recognition even as it advertises its “different culture” status. Writer-director Sean Wang’s debut feature fits neatly … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Jeremy Irons leads a Polish Home Renovation in 1980s London — “Moonlighting” (1982)

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

A cut-rate Polish work crew slips into wintry 1981 London to do an off-the-books home renovation in “Moonlighting,” Jerzy Skolimowski’s droll and intimate comment on capitalism, the collapse of communism and the horrors of cut-rate home repair. It’s one of … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: The terror and heartbreak of life under a dictatorship — the Oscar-contending “I’m Still Here”

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Roger Moore

A mother and father contemplate sending their oldest daughter to London to study. It’s 1970 and the family lives in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has been under a military dictatorship for years. the daughter is college age, rebellious, and the … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: There’s no feud like an Irish feud over land, fermented guilt and sheep — “Bring Them Down”

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Roger Moore

Not going to sugar-coat this. “Bring Them Down” is rough, a movie of wrenching, insensate cruelty, much of it directed at animals. Writer-director Chris Andrews has made a debut feature that is as hard to watch as any recent film, … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: George C. Scott is the “Transporter” in a much older BMW for “The Last Run” (1971)

Posted on February 8, 2025 by Roger Moore

“The Last Run” is a tidy if not exactly tight template for generations of “driver” movies to come. Here is George C. Scott as the original “Transporter,” taking out and thrashing a collectible BMW from Portugal to the Pyrnees all … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: The Sexual Sensory Overload of “Black Narcissus” (1947)

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Roger Moore

Long regarded as “the most beautiful film ever shot in color,” Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus” remains a feast for the eyes, one unspoiled by the knowlege that most every dazzling image put on the screen was manipulated, … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy in a Rodeo Love Triangle by Nicholas Ray — “The Lusty Men” (1952)

Posted on February 2, 2025 by Roger Moore

Which classic film to watch on a chilly Sunday afternoon often comes down to a coin toss for me. Does the day have a ’40s, ’50s melodrama vibe? That usually means it’s Douglas Sirk or Nicholas Ray time. And if … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Combat at Its most Cliched — “Valiant One”

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Roger Moore

The bar was raised on combat films decades ago. Corny, tactically sloppy flag-wavers no longer cut the mustard. And thanks to the most documentary filmed in history — Iraq and Afghanistan — it’s not just the feature films that made … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Liam and Colm, Ciarán and Kerry “In the Land of Saints and Sinners”

Posted on January 30, 2025 by Roger Moore

“In the Land of Saints and Sinners” is an embarrassment of riches, a forlorn thriller cast with many of the greatest Irish character actors of their generation and featuring the cream of the next generation of Irish leading ladies. Of … Continue reading →

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