Tag Archives: movie-review

Netflixable? “Mary” inspires a Biblical biopic

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Roger Moore

Long before Joseph of Nazareth reveals himself to be an action hero, saving the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus from rapacious Romans, the not-entirely-Biblical, not-exactly historical bio-pic “Mary” has lost its way. It’s not the great Sir Anthony Hopkins … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Remembering an earlier coup attempt, an armed insurrection by “The Order”

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Roger Moore

It’s not the cars and the clothes that establish “The Order” as a period piece. It’s the notion of Federal law enforcement aggressively pursuing violent traitors out to overthrow democracy no matter how indifferent the entitled, selective-enforcement rural sheriffs and … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Hungarian doctor discovers the need for antiseptics in the Oscar hopeful “Semmelweis”

Posted on December 6, 2024 by Roger Moore

The medical biopic“Semmelweis“would make a fine double feature paired with the recent Netflix medical history drama “Joy.” Set a century apart, they’re both about a male-dominated medical profession struggling with issues of childbirth. “Joy” is about the long process of … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? The Postwar Poor in Italy ship their kids North on “The Children’s Train”

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Roger Moore

World War II put lots of children, all over the world, in mortal danger. Those families that could often put them on trains to escape it. From the Kindertransport of Jewish children from Nazi controlled corners of Europe to the … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Prodigal daughter comes home to find she’s been replaced — “You are Not Me”

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Roger Moore

The Spanish thriller “You Are Not Me” takes its sweet, creepy time getting around to stating the obvious. Set and shot in rural Valencia, it’s about a doctor/daughter who’s come home for the holidays, bringing her wife and Black adopted … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Palestine’s hope for Oscar recognition? “From Ground Zero” takes us inside Gaza

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Roger Moore

When tragedy hits artists, artists create. So when the civilians of Gaza were consumed by the conflict that ignited between Hamas and Israel, Palestinian artists — documentarians and diarists, influencers and animators — set out to describe their experience on … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Bronson Brawls and an action auteur is born — Walter Hill’s “Hard Times” (1975)

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Roger Moore

There’s a gentility about “Hard Times,” a bare-knuckle brawling drama set during the Great Depression. It’s a genre piece populated with veteran character actors playing archetypes bound by their own code, playing their parts in a story so pre-ordained that … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Parole violators don’t stand a chance against “Officer Black Belt”

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Roger Moore

Absurd on its surface and dark hearted to say the least, “Officer Black Belt” is a violent thriller that flirts with being a Korean action comedy. If you can get by the murderers, rapists and many child molesters brought to … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Colombian Road Warriors smuggle gas, and more — “Pimpinero: Blood and Oil”

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Roger Moore

It begins in a “Road Warrior” hellscape, a desert borderland where gasoline is smuggled in a high stakes game of chicken with the authorities of two countries added to the danger of carelessly transporting an explosively flammable substance. We meet … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Spain’s Oscar hopes ride on “Saturn Return (Segundo Premio)” a bio pic of the indie band Los Planetas

Posted on November 30, 2024 by Roger Moore

You don’t have to know the history and love the music of Spanish indie rock icons Los Planetas (“The Planets”) to connect with the new bio-pic about these ’90s fixtures of Spanish “alternative rock.” But it helps. “Saturn Return” is … Continue reading →

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