Tag Archives: music

Netflixable? Polish Rocker Rebels and Resists as “Less of a Stranger”

Posted on October 11, 2026 by Roger Moore

All the cliches, tropes and tricks of the rock star biopic are trotted out for “Less of a Stranger,” a Polish prance down the primrose path of pop stardom. “Less of a Stranger?” That phrase applies to this Polish production … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: The Duke, Quakers and the Original “Angel and the Badman” (1947)

Posted on October 1, 2026 by Roger Moore

John Wayne was on the cusp of his career peak when he struck off on his own and produced and starred in “Angel and the Badman,” a project written and directed by James Edward Grant, who’d become Wayne’s confidante and … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Hello, Dolly — “9 to 5” becomes a Clarion Call for Working Women

Posted on September 1, 2026 by Roger Moore

You know and I know the title song “9 to 5” was always better than the movie “9 to 5,” right? Memory can fix a “classic” film’s failings, and this one — a big, touched-a-nerve hit when it premiered in … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Song Sung Blue” Weepin’ in My Popcorn

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Roger Moore

Sing-along songs are musical comfort food, and any songsmith, singer or singer-songwriter can count him or herself lucky if they stumble into one in the course of a career. Musical biographies are the cinema’s equivalent of such comfort food, and … Continue reading →

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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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