Tag Archives: writing

Movie Review: Lost in Dementia and Memory Care, seeking that “Familiar Touch”

Posted on August 5, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Familiar Touch” is a simple, documdrama-real film of frank honesty and sensitivity about dementia and adjusting to life in Memory Care. If you’re fortunate enough to not know that label, describing the wing or floor of any nursing home or … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation,” a Writer, a Book, a Legend and a Legacy

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Roger Moore

Natalie Merchant, the singer and songwriter of “Hey Jack Kerouac” among other hits, thinks that one reads and is swept up by his novel “On the Road” when young because “You’re kid of wired for it in adolescence.” The actor, … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Burt, Booty, Brigands and Brigantines — “The Crimson Pirate” (1952)

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Roger Moore

“The Crimson Pirate?” Yarrrrr, there’s a pirate picture with teeth! Gore Verbinski borrowed from a parade of pirate movies when he concocted Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franhcise, none more than this jaunty romp from 1952. Warner Bros. gave star … 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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Classic Film Review: Anna May Wong is the “Lady from Chungking” (1942)

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Roger Moore

Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American movie star, was already famous — a Hollywood mainstay since the silent film era who first appeared on screen at 14 back in 1919 — when World War II broke out. With the … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? A “Trainwreck” documentary remembers “The Real ‘Project X'”

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Roger Moore

It was just a movie, but those of us who saw it and brought an adult persective to reviewing “Project X” back in 2012 picked up on the ante it was upping. Decades of raucus youth party pictures, from “Animal … Continue reading →

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“Costner’s The West” and LeBron’s “Jim Thorpe: Lit By Lightning” — Can they rescue The History Channel?

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Roger Moore

The advent of streaming and video on demand has hastened an inconvenient and often downright unseemly devolution of “channels” and what they used to mean to the TV consumer. The long-established “evolve or die” desperation of basic cable/dish meant that … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Maine Lobsterman can’t escape “The Ghost Trap” of his life

Posted on July 5, 2025 by Roger Moore

A script that leans into melodrama and wildly uneven performances are the undoing of “The Ghost Trap,” an immersive peek into Maine lobstering life and the people who live it. Zak Steiner and others in the cast doing the baiting, … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Swiss Mom Takes Lovers to Fool Her son about his father — “Let Me Go”

Posted on June 24, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Let Me Go” is an intimate, brittle and somewhat chilly Swiss romance about a 40something single mom who stumbles into her feelings, despite a lifetime of avoiding that trap. Jeanne Balibar stars as a small town seamstress who takes regular … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Brit Baby Boomer lost in His Own World — “Billy Liar” (1963)

Posted on June 17, 2025 by Roger Moore

Falling into “Billy Liar” is no easy feat, even for a film buff, over sixty years after it was released. It’s been included in more than one list of “the 100 Best British Films Ever Made,” albeit in the bottom … Continue reading →

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