Tag Archives: movies

Movie Review: A Pop Music Fable trapped in YA Sci-Fi Land –“O’Dessa”

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Roger Moore

Generations raised on stories about this or that world/future/universe saved by “The Chosen One” deserve a musical about this post-religion/post Potter fantasy in the flesh. So here’s “O’Dessa,” a close-to-the-present-day dystopian fable about a “Seventh Son” who happens to be … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Numbing even without the violence –“Novocaine”

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Roger Moore

It begins with sentiment, introducing a character worthy of our sympathy, if not our pity. There’s an emotional tug to the scenes in which the guy with the genetic malady connects with that cute co-worker who seems to “get” him. … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Treasure Trove of Secrets are concealed via a “Black Bag”

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Roger Moore

You don’t see men in turtlenecks anymore. They mostly turn up in spy thrillers, these days — gloomy, conspiratorial pictures with a fall, wintry or too-early spring setting, scripted to match the Cold War that passed and the chilly one … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: When Ireland isn’t Enough, “The Problem with People”

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Roger Moore

A couple of top flight character actors — Irish mainstay Colm Meaney and American kvetcher Paul Reiser — pair up for an Irish comedy about family history, inheritance, grudges and cultures clashing in “The Problem with People.” It’s got the … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Still a hoot — Mssr. Belmondo’s Holiday — “That Man from Rio (L’homme de Rio)” (1964)

Posted on March 5, 2025 by Roger Moore

Adrien, dashing from 1960s Rio de Janiero to Brasilia, the then new capital of Brazil, in a pink 1929 Chrysler 75 adored with green stars, pulls over at the first modernist police station he spies. He steps out of the … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? A Norwegian remake follows a drunken, aimless skier on “The Wrong Track”

Posted on March 4, 2025 by Roger Moore

One of the more disillusioning aspects of the Golden Age of Content is the way Netflix repurposes intellectual property and remakes films for different markets. Spanish films get almost pointless Mexican or Argentine remakes, and vice versa. And it all … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Cute and sweet and challenging — REALLY challenging — “The Unbreakable Boy”

Posted on February 28, 2025 by Roger Moore

In the years since Hollywood “discovered” autism, the tendency has been for movies to treat those carrying this burden as more “Rain Man” quirky and cute than “Rain Man” challenging. Symptoms and behaviors might come and go as the plot … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Divers race to save One of Their Own from Taking his “Last Breath”

Posted on February 28, 2025 by Roger Moore

Fear of the inky black void at the bottom of the sea and of drowning down there drives the simple but flawlessly executed diver-down thriller “Last Breath.” It’s an almost-real-time account of a deep sea diving accident, and a film … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Young Hitman is tested by “Old Guy” Christoph Waltz, his Mentor

Posted on February 23, 2025 by Roger Moore

Hitman thrillers long ago ran out of anything new to do with the genre, lapsing into glib sometime after “La Femme Nikita” back in the ’90s. Nowadays, “glib” isn’t enough. If you’re not aiming for “flippant” like 1974’s “Thunderbolt and … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: An Oscar-nominated animated “Incredible Journey” from Latvia — “Flow”

Posted on February 19, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Flow” is a futuristic Franco-Latvian fantasy, an animated sci-fi version of Disney’s classic animal odyssey, “The Incredible Journey.” Gints Zilbalodis’ film, an Oscar nominee as Best Animated Feature and as Best International Feature, is a dialogue-free travelogue that follows a … Continue reading →

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