Persuation (2022)

Ok, there are so many interpretations of this book specifically and Jane Austen in general that it is hard to know which I like best--the Regency steeped ones or the modern versions. This one is kind of a mash up of the two. Set in the original times period, but with decidedly modern asides. This is a thoroughly charming portrayal of Anne Elliot.She drinks red wine straight from the bottle, is seen crying in the tub and lying around in bed, narrating her romantic woes with a familiar, self-effacing wit. She also repeatedly breaks the fourth wall with an amusingly dry aside or a well-timed eye roll. Anne jokes that she’s “thriving,” and clearly she is anything but, but she’s so winning in her state of loss that we can’t help but root for her. Her plight is that the love of her life, Frederick Wentworth, was penniless when they first met, about to set sail on a Navy ship, and Ann's up tight, society obsessed family convinced her that she should give him up--which she did and eight years later she regrets that choice every single day. Then, as luck would have it, they meet up again, and now he is a rich man, all while her own family's fortune is waning--but does she tell him how she feels? Does he tell her he carries a torch for her? No, of course not, so we all have to watch them miss each other time and time again. Not terribly satisfying, but Ann is great and so in the end, I recommend this.

Penguin Lessons (2025)

The director of this movie was also the director of The Full Monty, and if you are looking for something similar, you will be disappointed--but if you are looking for a quiet indie film that has some really awful things going on in hte background but that does not deal with that ugliness head on, you might enjoy this--I did. The movie features a mentally checked-out teacher named Michell at a boys’ private school in Buenos Aires, Argentina--we do not find out until much later what it was that happened to him that left him so damaged, but it is there. It all starts to shift a bit for him when he finds a Magellanic penguin on the beach in Uruguay, cleans him up, and the penguin is quite imprinted on him, and he reluctantly brings it home with him. The penguin helps him to segue back into the land of empathy and compassion, a place he has been disconnected from for an untold amount of time. Unfortunately, he is working in Argentina in the time when a right-wing military dictatorship takes over the country and is kidnapping people on the street and disappearing them. Sounds impossible but that is also happening right now in the United States, so never forget. This does not dealve too deeply into those waters, but does end with the sobering statistics on how widespread the kidnapping, torture and murder was and how many people suffered. I was in Buenos Aires earlier this year, and there are many doorsteps throughout the city marking homes where people disappeared and who they were--never foget.

Holiday in the Vineyards (2025)

Yes, this is a romantic comedy aimed at the holiday viewing set, and no it is not a great film. I watchd it when my spouse unexpectedly tested positive for COVID and all of our weekend plans got canceled or put on hold because of it. He was ill, not just infected, and so our whole household lived separate lives for several days and I watched this movie. I enjoy the occasional movie in this genre. There are predictable things that happen and there are some real stretches to believe, more so than in movies of this genre, which is saying something. The situation is that Carter Baldwyn is the screw-up son of Margo Baldwyn (Eileen Davidson), the wealthy head of a huge bargain basement wine brand. In an effort to prove to his mom that he’s not a total good-for-nothing, he agrees to visit a small winery called Huckabee Vineyard in the fictional wine country town of Los Santos, CA, that’s just gone on the market and which his mother wants to acquire for their company. The catch – Carter has to be a run of the mill guy while he’s scoping out the vineyard so no one catches wind that it’s a Baldwyn that’s buying. No one likes the Baldwyns or their brand, becausethey are predators who not only make bad wine, but have a scorched earth approach to doing so. Carter lucks out when the real estate agent selling Huckabee, Valentina Espin offers him a place to stay if he finishes the remodel on her guest house. She is a widowed mom of two adorable boys, and Carter is no more suited to renovation than he is to anything else, but he manages to get the local hardware store owner to help him. It turns out that the locals are making some very good wine in their garages, and Carter comes to see things from their point of view. The scenery is gorgeous, and this is a quiet unassuming movie.

Wish (2023)

This movie got a lot of very bad reviews, and where the story goes, this is a sub par addition to the Disney ouevre. The best rap of it is that it is all about emphasizing Disney's 100th anniversary, and that wishing upon a star is one of the oldest Disney tropes out there. From my point of view, that is 100% okay, that making a movie that harkens to their past once every 100 years is excusable. The downside is that the story does not drive the plot, the foundational concept does. So here is the story. Asha is a 17-year-old about to interview for an apprenticeship with the beloved King Magnifico of Rosas. The King is the keeper of magic in Rosas, a man who can extract the wishes of his flock, keeping them in a chamber high above the city, and choosing one wish in a ceremony to allow to come true. Asha hopes that her 100-year-old grandfather Sabino will finally have his wish granted, but she discovers that Magnifico isn’t well named. He’s more of a hoarder of wishes than a granter, and someone who doesn't keep his promises. Of course this is Disney, so Asha isn’t just an ordinary girl who learns about the absolute corruption of absolute power—she becomes a magical figure herself when a wishing star grants her abilities that turn her into a leader for her people. Asha literally wishes on a Star, and said Star comes down to cause chaos and help Asha start a revolution.

Nonnas (2025)

One of my kids and I watch movies together when my spouse is on call or out of town. We watch things that are not clear winners, and also things that might not hit the spot for him--in this case I think he would have been ok with this (we watched Kung Fu Panda 4 this way, and that was a clear win-win. We found it modestly entrertaining and he would not have agreed I predict). This is inspired by the life of Jody Scaravella, who moved into the attic bedroom of his childhood home to care for his mother. When she died he was bereft, set afloat and asea, not knowing quite what to do next. In the midst of his grief, and maybe not thinking as clearly as would be ideal, he opened Enoteca Maria on Staten Island in 2007. Still thriving two decades later, the restaurant became famous for the grandmothers or nonnas in the kitchen. Each of them cooking dishes from different Italian regions. His concept was that the restaurant and the food would remind you of home, that the kitchen would be populated not by prodessional chefs but by people who were cooking food they had made for their families for decades. There is also a thread here of hanging on to your culture, and that the recipes that our grandmother's made being made now is a way to hang on to that history. It’s about holding onto tradition—conjuring our ancestors through the things they pass down to us—whether it’s culture, inheritance, or food. I just saw a recipe for Molasses Cookies in my grandmother's handwriting in my recipe book this past week and it made me think of so much more than her or those cookies. Even though I did not find the recipe that I was looking for, it was quite lovely to peak in to my past.

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

The most shocking thing about this movie is that it has been 8 years since a Kung Fu Panda has come out--it is both hard to believe it has been that long and equally challenging to think that it still has a sustained audience. This is a solid but unremarkable follow up, not sustaining the magic of the first one, but it is certainly recognizable and uses many of the tropes that worked in the past along with heavy hitting actores coming back to voice the characters even after such a long delay. Here is the basic set up. It is sometime after the defeat of General Kai, where Po – now well established as the Dragon Warrior – become a local celebrity. He even helps his fathers – adopted goose dad Mr. Ping and biological panda dad Li – open a new restaurant in the Valley of Peace. But Po’s master Shifu chimes in with some ancient history--he claims that Po’s time as the Dragon Warrior is coming to an end and he must choose a successor, as he is to advance to the highest stage in all of kung fu: Spiritual Leader. Po, enjoying his status and fearing change, is reluctant to name a new Dragon Warrior and equally hesitant about taking on the new role. This leades to some mistakes being made, another epic battle between good and evil, and a possible new team member to boot. This is deversionary at best--not sorry to have wathced--it is leaving Netflix soon after all--but not exactly recommending it. I will say I so like this series better than the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, so there is that.

Our Little Secret (2025)

This is a solid if unexceptional romantic comedy that does exactly what it is supposed to, and it does it pretty well. It is set in the holiday season and it is family friendly, so it could be something to watch with the relatives if your family traditions veer away from sports and into movie viewing. Here's how it goes. Avery, a successful business consultant with her own firm who is meetiAs luck would have it, Avery and Logan, who had been best friends since they were kids before dating throughout their teens and twenties, and people thinking they had what it takes to go the long haul. That came to a screaching halt ten years earlier, the same year Avery’s mother passed away, because Avery was choosing grad school far away over making her relationship with Logan, and they haven't had contact since, even though their family's live near each other. Now, these two have to get through a four-day holiday weekend with Cam and Cassie’s ultra-snooty parents, Erica and Leonard. The result is a perfectly executed marriage-remarriage style screwball comedy, with new relationship twists and decidedly wacky situations thrown at Avery and Logan every ten minutes. It all turns out more or less the way you might hope it would, with some added whip cream and cherry on top along the way.

Dolce Villa (2025)

This is a lifeless script with adequate acting--except for the town mayor, Francesca, who is fun from start to finish. The real draw here is the charming Italian town where they are selling houses for $1 in the hopes of revitalizing a village where the population is shrinking to the point of not being sustainable. This is actually happening-two of my kids studied abroad in Sicily and a town nearby, Gangivecchio, had such a deal. The scenery is spectacular, and the house they are renovating is gorgeous. The story here is that a duaghter who is wandering aimlessly in both Italy and life happens upon this village and embarks on a plan to renovate a broke down palace using money that her Italian mother who died recently left her and her father, who used to be a chef but quit when his wife got ill, goes after her to stop her. Stop her he does not, and they both find love, love of land, and love of food and making it. No surprises.

The Life List (2025)

When my spouse is on call or I am traveling for work I like to watch very light weight movies that he would not much enjoy, and this is just that. The difference is that for the most part these play the same role that reading murder mysteries do for me--something that I can wind down to that don't take too much in the way of attention. This one is quite formaulaic--a 30-something woman, Alex, is playing it safe by working for her mother and living at home while she is taking a pause, including being involved with someone who she is more biding her time with than in love with. It all changes when her mother's cancer comes back. Her mother elects comfort care and when Alex finds out that her mother gave her job to her sister-in-law and leaves her with the task of completing a Life List that she wrote when she was 13 years old in order to hear what she inherits. Yes, we know what will happen from the get go, and yet, it was a very enjoyable journey for me. I am not one to micro-manage, as Alex's mother saw fit, but watching it unfold was quite entertaining for me. There are literally no surprises, which is kind of the point of this genre and I definitely got what I was hoping for from it.

The Quilters (2024)

This short documentary was short listed for the Oscars in 2025, but it did not make the final cut. I love the short list though, because many of the documentaries are as good if not occasionally better (in my opinion) than what makes it to the nomination phase, and this is one such example. It is not because it is about quilting and that I am a quilter--it is about finding purpose in a place where there isn't much of that. The quilters are in prison, many of them for decades, and the quilts they make are for children in foster care--which is a place many of them are familiar with. The fabric is donated, and while they do not focus on this, they seem to be quilted by one long arm quilter--very fascinated about how he chooses designs and watching that process, but that is not included. They have very entry sewing machines and have to design with the fabric they get that is donated. They know very little about each kid they are making a quilt for, and yet they put a lot of thought into what they are going to do, and why. It is well worth watching and even better, think about the threads that it pulls in terms of what it means to all of us as we think about incarceration.

The Wedding Banquet (2025)

I really liked this and my only regret is that I did not watch it during PRIDE month, when I should have been celebrating that while women are now second class citizens in terms of personal autonomy, being gay and married is still allowed. This is an homage to Ang Lee’s ahead-of-its-time classic of the same name and retains some of the basics of that wonderful movie. They are both the tale of a queer couple and one of the life partners’ arranged marriage to their female tenant to both trick his conservative parents and help the bride with her green card. This version first and foremost recognizes that a lot has advanced in America when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, cultural representation, and the country’s multi-racial construct--at least for now--anything the Nazis hated the current GOP party feels similarly about, but for now we rejoice in the gains. And in that vein (the celebration, not those who seek to queel it) it also understands that the core of everyone’s shared humanity hasn’t changed: love still matters, families (especially chosen families) are worth fighting for, and generational relationships are as complicated as ever. Don't miss this one, and if you haven;t seen the original, see it first!

Moana 2 (2024)

Let's just say that while we all love animated feature films in our house, and we have had a long love affair with Disney, which really, I do not want to have to explain or think too deeply about but it is definitely true and will likely always be true, even if there are more than a few cli=unkers. Of which thisis one.Don't get me wrong, it is visually stunning, the action is pretty much non-stop, there are songs where songs should be in a Disney movie worth its salt, but it just was not for us. The follow up to the original does bear a burden--with the exception of Toy Story and Paddington 2, the follow up usually carries a bit of disappointment along with the diversion. This had a heaping helping of that and while we watched it through to the end, we would not recommend it. Even the presence of the delightfully charming Duane Johnson could save it for us.

Paddington in Peru (2025)

Unlike the very enjoyable movie The Marching Band, which I also watched on a long haul flight (and when my bar for enjoyment is at an all time low--I like almost everything in that situation) this was very disappointing. My chagrin is based not so much of the Paddington books and how they have been translated to the big screen, but rather on just how much I loved Paddington 2 and how I hoped the same for what is essentially Paddington 3. No such luck. And it has a new director, which may explain the discrepency. The quest at hand takes Paddington to Peru, where he hopes to find his beloved Aunt Lucy. Lucy was living at a Home for Retired Bears when she began behaving oddly. A letter from the establishment alarms Paddington into deciding to visit her. Paddington’a adoptive family The Browns accompany him in solidarity and off they go, with one after another misadventure befalling them, but none quite so charming as those that occurered in previous films. This is not awful, it just doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi about it.

Marching Band (2024)

I did not watch a lot of great movies on my long haul trips so far this year, but this is the winner. French film-maker Emmanuel Courcol has a nice touch with this dramedy. Benjamin Lavernhe plays Thibaut, a distinguished and sensitive orchestra conductor who collapses mid-rehearsal in Paris and is told he has leukaemia and needs a bone marrow transplant donor. Thibaut is adopted and this means tracking down his biological brother out in the boondocks: factory worker Jimmy, played by the formidable Pierre Lottin, whose gift for deadpan comedy really only gets free rein at the very beginning of the film. Thibaut has the tricky task of asking someone who is a total stranger if he wouldn’t mind donating his bone marrow. But this fraught situation reveals – a little programmatically, perhaps – that Jimmy has a real musical talent, like him, plays trombone in the raucous factory band and nurses a passion for jazz on vinyl. Thibault sees in Jimmy a vision of what his own life could have been without his adoptive mother’s comfortable middle-class background, and sees Jimmy and himself through the lens of class, politics and society, and not the supposed destiny of pure talent. It is a great story well told, and it has the subtext of what the affirmative action of class provledge affords those who are born into it.

Champions (2025)

This is a very enjoyable and entirely predictable romantic comedy. I watched this while I was traveling, and one plane landing while I still had about a quarter of the movie to go. While I was switching planes and waiting to board, I played out what I thought would likely happen and while I was not 100% correct, I nailed about 92% of it. That, in my mind, is what makes a successful movie in this genre--that you know exactly what will happen and you can't wait to watch it unfold. This is also a very likable sports comedy – what I did not know until I read a review of the movie is that it is a remake of the 2018 Spanish film Campeones (inspired by the real-life story of the Aderes basketball team in Burjassot) that delivers belly laughs and heartfelt charm in equal measure. Woody Harrelson plays Marcus Marakovich, an irascible assistant coach working in minor league basketball whose life unravels when he fights with his superior Phil (Ernie Hudson) on court and then drunkenly rear-ends a cop car on the road. To avoid prison, Marcus accepts 90 days’ community service coaching “adults with intellectual disabilities”. He is not what you would call enthusiastic about this, in fact he is rude and narrow minded, but as you might predict, they win his heart, and it is just a fun movie to watch.

The Fire Inside (2025)

This is a biopic or dacudrama about Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, who is an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist from Flint, Michigan who is widely regarded as one of the greatest female boxers ever. She was born in 1995 and became a double Olympic gold medallist (2012 and 2016), the first time when she was just 17 years old and coached by a man who basically volunteered his time to teach her to box. She is the first boxer, male or female, to hold all four major world titles across two weight classes simultaneously. The movie does a nice job of telling all of her story, which is a severely impoversihed childhood, an unstable living situation and a coach who changed her life, maybe even saved it. The story of her rise to success is told in the way of all great sports sotries, where you basically know the outcome but still enjoy watching it unfold. The back end of the movie is what happens after she wins, which is nothing at all. She is expecting to be showered with riches and she is all but ignored. The reality of life after the Olympics is equally well told.

The Way We Speak (2025)

I watched this movie on a long haul flight, and it is unusual in that it explores public and private struggles in a way that made me, at least, uncomfortable. There are three main characters in this. The setting is a debate at a conference. THe first is a middle-aged writer named Simon Harrington who is finally starting to have a breakthrough is brought in to have a series of debates over three days with another rationalist, his longtime best friend and colleague George Rossi. When Rossi bows out due to health problems, Simon ends up squaring off against a last-minute replacement, Sarah Clawson, a young Christian essayist whose latest book has sold over a million copies. The third is Claire, Simon's wife, who is a well respected doctor and researcher, and also dying of cancer. Simon is struggling both professionally and personally. He has always finished second, and he had been hoping to shine on this stage--both for himself, but also as it might be the last time his wife will see him compete in this way. He relies heavily on her, but rather than grapple with losing her, he is focusing on the debate. His new opponent is no more likable than he is and worse yet, she fights dirty. Claire is the adult in room, and it all comes to a dramatic end.

I'm Still Here (2024)

I finally saw the last of the 2025 Best Picture nominations, and this was fantastic. It is also based on a real story, and the film recreates the settings and the time. It is 1970 in Rio de Janeiro, where Eunice and Rubens live with their five children by Leblon Beach. With white sand as soft as pillows and blue seas as clear as the sky, the idyllic locale should be a soft landing for the Paiva family. An architect and former congressman, Rubens has only recently returned to the country after a six-year self-exile due to the 1964 coup d’état. For the family, however, the dictatorship is never far from the foreground. Military helicopters fly over the beach, and trucks carrying additional troops occupy the streets. Television news stations cover the release of the German and Swiss ambassadors from anti-government factional custody. Rubens also takes secret phone calls in his office, coordinating pickups and drop-offs of packages. The collapse occurs when Rubens is taken for questioning by plain-clothed army officials, a catastrophe that takes the film to darker places and engenders many unanswerable questions. And while it’s not a spoiler to say Eunice and her children will never see Rubens again, those hopeless queries aren’t necessarily what the movie is about. Rather, this poignant film concerns the response to having neither a definitive answer nor final closure. Eventually, Eunice and Eliana will be taken in for questioning, psychologically tortured, and then released. Eunice will pick up the pieces and dig, becoming politically active in the process. We will follow her struggle through the decades—her career as a professor and supporter of Indigenous rights—leaping to São Paulo in 1996 before settling in 2014. She made a life after that was both all her own and honored the legacy of her husband.

Here (2025)

This is a terrible movie and you should not be lured in by the fact that it has a competent director, Robert Zemeckis, who has directed enjoyable films and Tom Hanks in a lead acting role. Even if you are on a long haul flight you will be disappointed. The film, based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire, is to plunk the camera down in one place to illustrate all of the events that have occurred in that very spot throughout history, using frames-within-the-frame to transition from one point in time to the next. Now, I loved the David Mason book, Northwoods, which did something like this, but the content of this is boring, and at no point does it improve. At first, it is open land that gives us glimpses of everything from the dinosaurs perishing to Native Americans living their lives to the home of Benjamin Franklin’s estranged son. As the 20th century arrives, the location becomes a duplex’s living room, and we begin observing the lives of some of those living within its walls. Apparently the director (unbeknownst to me--I learned this afterwards from a reviewer who, if possible, liked the movie less than I did) trying to evoke memories of “Forrest Gump” by reuniting the key members of that film’s creative team—the package also includes screenwriter Eric Roth, composer Alan Silvestri, and cinematographer Don Burgess—in the hopes of getting something of equal appeal. What he doesn’t have, however, are two things that made that film work—a compelling narrative and a darkly humorous undertone that helped prevent it from being overwhelmed by sentimentality.

You're Cordially Invited (2025)

I watched this romantic comedy on a long haul flight home recently. It features Reece Witherspoon as a high-powered, equally high maintenance TV executive who is acting as the wedding planner for her niece’s wedding as well as Will Ferrell, whose only daughter is getting married at the sight of he and his deceased wife’s wedding. Both parties have an emotional attachment to the remote wedding venue and they are mistakenly double booked. It is a situation that has comedic potential—in this case it is not fully realized. The two veteran actors involved do a reasonable job with the material that they have, But everyone involved is a pretty decent person, which ironically makes the tension less funny and more cringe-worthy, and that in and of itself the stumbling block. All in all, this is just okay—I was happy to watch it, but wouldn’t recommend it to others.