Nuremburg (2025)

There are countless variations of the saying “history repeats itself.” Nuremberg is a movie that wants us to remember. The story revisits the final days of World War II and the Nuremberg trials. The movie begins with Göring attempting to flee at the end of the war before being captured by Allied forces. We see him, along with other leading figures from Hitler’s inner circle, taken into custody. Douglas Kelly, played by Rami Malek, is brought in to create psychological profiles of these men. In the background is the effort of Justice Robert Jackson, played by Michael Shannon, who believes these men must stand trial for their crimes. He argues that they should not simply be executed. There must also be a public accounting for the horrors carried out in the name of the Third Reich. It is interesting that they brought a psyc Russell Crowe’s Göring is charming to the point of being almost disarming. We watch the two men talk and probe one another. Kelly is writing a book about what he is learning from Göring and the others. His questions cut to the heart of how such atrocities came to be. When Kelly asks why he followed Hitler, Göring describes a devastated Germany after World War I, a nation humiliated and made to suffer. Hitler told them that foreign powers were feasting on their pain and promised that Germany could reclaim its former glory. He made them feel proud again. Kelly’s obsession with Göring becomes his downfall, costing him his position, but not before Göring is put on trial. We watch Göring skillfully maneuver through Jackson’s questioning. Despite its flaws, there is something worthwhile in Vanderbilt’s attempt. Kelly eventually wrote his book. It revealed that what occurred in Germany could happen anywhere. The perpetrators of Nazi crimes were ordinary people who embraced a message that told them walking over the bodies of others was worth obtaining power. No one wanted to hear thst warning, and here we are, back at the beginning again.

Last Train To Memphis by Peter Guralnick

Ok, first off, if you are looking for a book about Elvis the man, you are not going to be happy with this. While it is densely researched, it ends in the late 1950's--it really is about how it all got started . It is based on hundreds of interviews and nearly a decade of research, it traces the evolution not just of the man but of the music and of the culture he left utterly transformed, creating a completely fresh portrait of Elvis and his world. This volume tracks the first twenty-four years of Elvis’ life, covering his childhood, the stunning first recordings at Sun Records (“That’s All Right,” “Mystery Train”), and the early RCA hits (“Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog,” “Don’t Be Cruel”). There’s more to this book than Elvis. It’s also the story of the American music industry in the 1950s. There is alot about how music was made and marketed at that time, and how rock n roll changed it. It wasn’t just about the sound but about how the music was actually sold. For example, how going on near-constant tour to small music venues was considered the best way to market yourself. The chapters about how Elvis’s manager, the Colonel, got him onto television and how television really started to change the music industry were fascinating. I heard and read a lot of the very bad things about the Colonel. This book really brought to light the why. The Colonel may have taken a much larger percent (25%) than was usual (10%), but he also had a great business mind and really got things done. It was the Colonel who got Elvis on television and in the movies. I’d always thought the Colonel pushed Elvis into the movies but this book showed from its extensive interviews that Elvis himself was quite interested in being like James Dean. The relationship, at least at the beginning, was a lot more give and take, and then inevitably it deteriorated, as did they.

Hamnet (2025)

Chloé Zhao is a master at translating a book into a movie. I was very impressed with her adaptation of Nomadland and this is even more impressive. Maggie O'Farrell's book comes to life in this movie in a in a beautiful and cinematic way. I don't often say this but while I loved the book the movie was more emotionally on target. In addition to being a visually stunning, emotionally devastating movie it is also a deeply sensorial exploration of grief, anchored by exceptional performances from Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. This is the story of William Shakespeare at home. This comes from a work of fiction but attempts to explain both Shakespeare's attraction to a woman who is uneducated as well as to hypothesize the egis for his one of his greatest plays. Agnes, is the daughter of a forest witch, and her connection to the earth, the trees, and the sky feels tangible and powerful. She meets Will --who will eventually turn out to be The Bard—their connection feels just as alive and free. They frolic and flirt joyfully, and the qualities that make her an outcast to everyone else make her wonderful to him. In no time, they’re married, then have a daughter named Susanna, and then twins: a boy and a girl, Hamnet and Judith. They have a blissful home life when Shakespeare is home and this is shattered when Hamnet dies. The grief that they that he experiences leads to the tragic play Hamlet.

Missed and Loved by Susie Boyt

This is another one of the “it's Friday and if you haven't read this it's new to you” book recommendations. This is the story of basically getting a do over in life. Ruth is a woman who believes in and despairs of the curative power of love. Her daughter, Eleanor, who is addicted to drugs, has just had a baby, Lily. Ruth adjusts herself in ways large and small to give to Eleanor what she thinks she may need—nourishment, distance, affection—but all her gifts and interventions fall well short. Eleanor an her partner are heavily using as well as largely ignoring their baby. After someone dies of an overdose in Eleanor's apartment building , Ruth hands her daughter an envelope of cash and takes Lily home with her, and Lily, as she grows, proves a compensation for all of Ruth's past defeats and disappointment. Love without fear is a new feeling for her, almost unrecognizable. Not everything goes perfectly well but it goes well enough and that is just perfect for Ruth. I really enjoyed this book and it is on the short side, something that can be read in an afternoon or two.

Last Days On Lake Trinity (2025)

This short documentary was shortlisted in that category for this for the 2026 Academy Awards. South Florida is facing a housing crisis, and that is one focus that this documentary brings to light. In March of 2022, Trinity Broadcasting Network, who owned the land, informed residents of Lakeside Park Estates that they had until December 31, 2022 to move out. Cooley centers on three women–Nancy Sanderson, Laurie Laney, and Nancy Fleishman–as they begin their hunt for another place to live after, it appears, that the county cannot combat TBN’s order. There are three things that I noticed watching rather than listening to this story. The 1st is that the place that they have which is waterfront is very beautiful and would be very hard to replicate. The second is that the mobile homes that these women live in are well beyond their sell by date. They are living in conditions that would be condemned I believe and then the third is that they have very few financial options and so this is a story of David and Goliath where the corporation holds all the cards. At the beginning of the film, Laney tells us that her first big purchase was her mobile home, but the real sense of belonging came within the community of Lakeside. Community and the collective experience is at the heart of Trinity. Fleishman worked off and on for TBN for years, and the silence from the company is troubling, especially when she calls to speak to someone about following up on the help they allegedly said they would provide.

Throwback by Maureen Go

I picked this up because it is a YA pick for Reese’s book club and I have very much enjoyed her selections. Priscilla, a first-generation Korean American and former high school cheerleader, expects her daughter, Sam, to pursue the All-American dream. But Sam isn't interested in the clichéd high school experience; she's a modern Gen Z teen. After a huge argument, Sam is transported back to the '90s alongside a 17-year-old Priscilla. It may be a bit contrived, bed but this time-travel tale brilliantly explores family, identity, and the immigrant experience making it a must-read for teens. There are plenty of LOL-worthy moments as Sam tries to navigate the '90s. However, the most poignant moments occur when Sam realizes how casual racism, cultural differences, and the pressure to meet Halmoni, Sam’s grandmother, and see how her expectations have shaped Priscilla into who she is today. I didn't enjoy this as much as others that I have read in the past but I would read another book by this author and I did like the time travel aspect in retrospect even though I found it odd at when I was reading it.

If I Had Legs I Would Kick You (2025)

I watched this movie because the actress was nominated for an Academy Award. It is about the unraveling of Linda, a wry, worn-down mother and therapist played magnificently and unflinchingly by Rose Byrne. I 100% agree with the award going to Jesse Buckley for her work in Hamnet which was incredible but Rose Byrne was my second choice. Like unbandaging a cut too soon, leaving it oozing and throbbing, a red gash for the world to see that you clearly lack self-control, Linda seriously struggles to juggle the mysterious illness of her daughter and the sudden collapse of her literal and metaphorical ceiling, leaving her with no pillars to support her. There are some very smart things that are said in this movie about shame and hiding things. It's a cautionary tale to do neither. It is better to RIP off the Band-Aid than to leave things unattended to for literally everyone’s sake. Ane lest you think it would take months for things to get this bad, as a mental health professional myself, it can all go bad in a blink of an eye.

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine

I picked up this book because it won the National Book Award and interestingly was not listed by the New York Times in their hundred notable books for 2025. I have read one book by this author previously and I have to say upon reflection this book is nothing like that one and yet it they are both equally enjoyable. It takes place in a tiny Beirut apartment, where sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. He is both a beloved high school philosophy teacher and "the neighborhood homosexual", his words. Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son's desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja's work life and love life, boundaries be damned. Mother and son are both equally irritating as well as entertaining. When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn't be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget. With little left unsaid between the sharp-tongued mother and her self-aware son, humor and poignance bring their challenges — close living quarters, difficult family members, financial turmoil, and wartime trauma — into bittersweet perspective. In summary this is a vivid story set in Beirut over six decades, that juxtaposes life changing moments from a gay man’s coming of age with the upheaval of a city in perpetual strife.

The Three Sisters (2025)

There are two stories here for this short animated film that was nominated in that category for the 2026 Academy Awards. The first is the story itself, told in 2-D animation and perhaps the most whimsical and weird of the five nominees. It imagines the isolated life on an island shared by three sisters when a stranger arrives and changes their day-to-day in unexpected ways. He's a burly sailor and, well, these ladies have been living alone for quite some time, so they find themselves each drawn to him, changing their appearance and doting on him in ways they haven't had a reason to before. It is without dialogue but with plenty of expressive animation, we come to appreciate these three sisters and their desire for more on this little island of theirs. Our dashing interloper is just that, however, and as the women have to face reality, it could be we're all headed for heartbreak. The second is that the film was submitted under a fictional name. Russian animation director Konstantin Bronzit, who is a celebrated animator from a shunned country may have been seeing if quality is identified or he may have feared he would have been side lines based on his country of origin. Afterall, if there is an anti-Russian documentary on offer, it is more likely than not to win, so he may have a point. In any case, he outed himself before the awards, and this was not a winner--nor was it my first or second choice.

Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick

In the vein of "possibly more than you could possibly want to know about a particular person" and yet also learn very close to nothing at all about a subject, this would be the book for you. The biggest surprise for anyone who picks up this book is that surprisingly little of it describes the interactions between Washington and Arnold, despite the subtitle. Apparently they weren’t that frequent and the two men have very little contact during the first half of the book. Unfortunately for me and anyone who is less than interested meticulously researched historical pageants describing battle after battle in the Revolutionary War, maps and all, there is an abundance of this and not much in the way of summation or analysis. The author is sympathetic to Arnold's plight, cognizant of his short comings and does a good job drawing an understandable and believable picture of what went right and what went very wrong for him as the war progressed. As to the fate of the American Revolution, there are a number of statements in the prologue that are not backed up within the book, at least to my ear, and overall I was disappointed. I did just read Richard Atkinson's 'The Fate of the Day", which is a far better chronicle of much of this time, so hindered by that. Do not be daunted by the length of the book--close to half the total pages come after the epilogue. I was reading an e-book, and had to reassure myself it would not last the full 500+ pages.