Tag Archives: music

Classic Film Review: Renewing “The Commitments” to Irish Soul and Irish Joy (1991)

Posted on October 26, 2025 by Roger Moore

Twas the writer Roddy Doyle who re-introduced the literary world to the concept of “Irish joy.” Sure’twas. His “Barrytown Trilogy” of comic novels in the late ’80s and early ’90s — the self-published sensation “The Commitments,” “The Snapper” and “The … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A “Boxcutter” Dreams of his Big Hip Hop Break…in Toronto

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Roger Moore

An aspiring rapper pins all his hopes on a make-or-break meeting with a famous producer at a “secret” party that everybody knows about in “Boxcutter,” an amiable street-life dramedy set on the not-so-mean streets of Toronto. It’s a tale with … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Springsteen” makes “Nebraska” — “Deliver Me from Nowhere”

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Roger Moore

Self-revealing, self-examining, self-mythologizing, self-indulgent and self-destructive, those are all phrases that can apply to Bruce Springsteen’s seminal, uncompromising and defiantly anti-commercial album “Nebraska.” It can’t be called the LP that “made him.” But this critically-acclaimed smash from 1982 underscored the … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review — Home Movies as Comedy Couples Counseling, “Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost”

Posted on October 18, 2025 by Roger Moore

They were the hottest comic “double act” of their day. Stiller & Meara were never as hip as Nichols and May, but reliably funny, TV (“family audience”) friendly and just edgy enough to give the live New York studio audiences … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Summer of ’81, “Casey Makes a Mixtape”

Posted on October 5, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Casey Makes a Mixtape” is a wan indie coming-of-age dramedy in which nobody comes of age, nothing dramatic or comedic happens. It’s a sort of little film festival movie that couldn’t, a period piece that was never fated to pick … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: Not just a band, but Prophets Warning of a Grim, Dumb American Future — “Devo”

Posted on August 23, 2025 by Roger Moore

Some kids dug the beat and found it “easy to dance to….” just so long as you knew The Robot. The cool kids loved the performance art kitsch of it all, groups of five dressing up in yellow ponchos or … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: “Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan” and how a TV host Changed America

Posted on August 3, 2025 by Roger Moore

He wasn’t a natural “performer.” Ed Sullivan had a face made for radio and voice best appreciated in print, where he’d gained fame as a Broadway columnist and sportswriter. Stiff, later somewhat stooped, with odd vocal cadences and a fear … 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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Movie Review: “The Musicians” become a reluctant String Quartet

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Roger Moore

“The Musicians” is a droll comedy about four string highly-strung string players who must come together as a “quartet” to perform an original composition on four legendary instruments for a worldwide classical music TV audience. If I haven’t scared you … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review — “Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T. Rex”

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Roger Moore

Seems like we’ve just about had enough time to forget singer-songwriter-provocateur Marc Bolan and his band T. Rex, when along comes another reminder that “Oh yeah, he was a big deal.” All it takes is a Mitsubishi sports car commercial, … Continue reading →

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