Tag Archives: movies

Classic Film Review: Hitchcock’s first take on the dainty and deadly “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934)

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Roger Moore

The earliest signs that the filmmaker would one day to be branded as “The Master of Suspense” in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent classic “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.” But it took the advent of sound, and several … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Denzel’s sons open up August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson”

Posted on November 24, 2024 by Roger Moore

Denzel Washington furthers his efforts to keep his promise to “do right by” the late, playwright August Wilson by producing another film of one of Wilson’s plays, this one he assigned to his sons, actor John David Washington to star … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Kirkland Fan and would-be filmmaker makes the trek to “Sallywood”

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Roger Moore

A film buff meets his Hollywood idol and wins his dream job working for her in “Sallywood,” a lighthearted indie lampoon of show business, showbiz “types” and the indignities of “I used to be famous.” Sally Kirkland got her start … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Black Boy’s Odyssey through the London “Blitz”

Posted on November 21, 2024 by Roger Moore

A single photo in Britain’s Imperial War Museum — a mixed-race child snapped as he joined the sea of children being evacuated from a British city early in World War II — inspired the brilliant writer-director Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” a … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? A Transgender Telenovela with Tunes — “Emilia Pérez”

Posted on November 21, 2024 by Roger Moore

“Emilia Pérez” is bold and daring musical treatment of subjects most often covered in telenovelas — Mexican soap operas — and in crime series such as “Queen of the South.” It’s about a Mexican cartel boss who decides to change … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Coming of Age, “What We Find on the Road”

Posted on November 19, 2024 by Roger Moore

“What We Find on the Road” is a dramatically dull indie roadtrip dramedy that reaches for “coming of age” and strains itself getting there. The film begins with mystery and promise, drifts into predictable and undramatic and doesn’t really rally … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Lemmon and Allyson remake “It Happened One Night” — as a musical — “You Can’t Run Away from It” (1956)

Posted on November 19, 2024 by Roger Moore

“You Can’t Run Away from It” is a comic curiosity from the early career of Jack Lemmon, a musical filmed when studios were scrambling to lure filmgoers away from TV and when musicals were so overexposed — “The King and … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Cillian Murphy’s an Irishman Haunted by the Cruelty of the Magdalene Laundries — “Small Things Like These”

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Roger Moore

There have been more emotional films about the great shame of modern Ireland, the state’s complicity with the Catholic church’s infamous “Magdalene Laundries, which imprisoned pregnant young women in convents, forced them to work for convent for-profit laundry services and … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Eastwood’s made a creaky court case built around “Juror #2”

Posted on November 18, 2024 by Roger Moore

Maybe the answer to “Why did Warner Brothers barely release Clint Eastwood’s ‘final film?” was that it’s just not very good. “Juror # 2” is competently cast, acted, shot and put together. But the script is melodramatic to the point … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Little Romance, a Touch of Class, and Class Warfare — “The Philadelphia Story” (1940)

Posted on November 13, 2024 by Roger Moore

It begins with a screwball tease — a couple, wordlessly breaking up, climaxing with the husband maniacally grabbing the wife by the forehead and shoving her back through the door and onto the floor. But even though the wife is … Continue reading →

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