FREE for Independence Day Weekend! Book About a French Soldier in the Revolutionary War
Posted on July 3, 2026 at 8:33 am
Copyright 2024 Miniver Press
A French Officer in the American Revolution is the thrilling story of a dashing and courageous French soldier who joined the Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington to fight in the American Revolutionary War. It is based on meticulous research and the journals of François-Louis de Ménonville, written by his direct descendant as if it was told by the soldier himself, with extensive footnotes for those interested in learning more. It describes not only his adventures in battle and comments on military strategy but his thoughts on George Washington, Lafayette, and other major figures.
The ebook is FREE the holiday weekend in honor of the 250th birthday of the US.
Summer Movies 2026: Sequels and Remakes, Book Adaptations, Extra-Terrestrials, Romance, Superheroes, Pixar, Comedy, and RuPaul!
Posted on June 1, 2026 at 6:06 am
Copyright 2026 Universal
The big summer movies are coming! We’ve got big new movies from some of the most creative directors in Hollywood. Christopher Nolan takes one one of the oldest epics in the Western canon, The Odyssey. And Steven Spielberg brings us back to the world of extra-terrestrials (possibly not as friendly as the ones in”E.T.” or “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“) in “Disclosure Day.” New stories about old friends are on the way, too. Woody and Buzz are back in “Toy Story 5.” Spider-Man is back in “Brand New Day.” The Minions are back in “Minions and Monsters.” And there’s a new “Scary Movie,” the sixth in the silly parody series.
History comes to the screen in “Pressure,” with Brendan Fraser as then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who has to know which of two conflicting weather reports to rely on in planning the battle that will be the turning point of WWII, and a fact-based story of a WWII rescue, “Lucky Strike,” directed by Rod Lurie (“The Outpost“), who co-wrote, and starring Scott Eastwood, Colin Hanks, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. “The Brink of War” tells the story of the delicate negotiations between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that ended the Cold War — and the Soviet Union.
Copyright 2026 Bleecker Street
There’s romance in “One Night Only” and comedy in Nate Bargatze’s “The Breadwinner.” And there’s a wild action comedy from RuPaul, who plays the President of the United States in a movie with a title that tells you everything you need to know, the three-exclamation point, cameo-filled “Stop! That! Train!” And every year (usually in August) there is some low-budget film that seems to come out of nowhere that introduces us to a major new talent. That’s what I look forward to the most.
MAY
“Pressure” In this gripping WWII drama, Brendan Fraser plays Eisenhower and Damian Lewis plays Montgomery in this tense drama about the lead-up to D-Day, when every detail matters and none more than the ability to predict the weather. Andrew Scott plays Dr. James Stagg, the real-life meteorologist who provided crucial information to make the Allied invasion successful.
“The Breadwinner” It feels like a remake of Michael Keaton’s “Mr. Mom,” with top stand-up comic Nate Bargatze as a stay-at-home dad trying to cope with domestic responsibilities.
“Tuner” In this tense, well-acted thriller, up-and-coming star Leo Woodall plays a one-time piano prodigy with perfect pitch who now has an ear condition that makes any sound excruciatingly painful. He works as a piano tuner with a mentor played by Dustin Hoffman and he is attracted to a beautiful young pianist (Havana Rose Liu). But when his exceptional hearing comes to the attention of some gangsters who want him to use his ears to crack safes, things get very complicated.
JUNE
June 5
“Masters of the Universe” (June 5) Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) is the good guy who is also known as He-Man and Skeletor (Jared Leto) is the bad guy in a story that brings the beloved 1980s cartoon series to a live action big screen, big budget film.
“Scary Movie 6” 26 years after the last one, the series that makes fun of pretty much everything that is popular returns with the original stars: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Marlon Wayans, and Shawn Wayans.
Copyright 2026 Paramount
“Power Ballad” Rick (Paul Rudd) is a musician who was once almost close to fame but is now a singer in a wedding band, doing covers. Danny (Nick Jonas) is a once-successul former boy band performer who has not broken through as a solo artist. They happen to meet and spend a boozy night jamming together. Danny takes credit for Rick’s song, which becomes a huge hit.
“Office Romance” Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso,” “Shrinking”) have to keep their romance secret because they work together and she’s the boss.
“The Birthday Party” Willem Dafoe plays a very wealth man who is giving an extravagent birthday party for his young adult daughter on his private Mediterranean island in the 1970s. Many guest from different parts of his life want to ask him for help or favors. And his daughter has her own secrets.
June 12
“Disclosure Day” Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, and Josh O’Connor star in a Steven Spielberg film about aliens, but also about trust in our institutions and whether they deserve it.
“Stop! That! Train!”
The name of the runaway train is the Glamazonian Express. RuPaul plays the US President. The packed cast includes Sarah Michelle Geller as “Famous Actress,” Joel McHale as “Male Passenger 2,” Nicole Richie as “Workaholic,” superstars from RuPaul’s Drag Race….and Charo!
June 19
“Toy Story 5” In another love letter to imagination, childhood, and friends, Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the gang are back and facing a new threat — the Lily Pad, an AI device voiced by Greta Lee.
“The Death of Robin Hood” Hugh Jackman plays the legendary hero who is seeking redemption, with Jodie Comer as a mysterious woman, Bill Skarsgård as Little John, along with Murray Bartlett, and Noah Jupe, directed by “A Quiet Place: Day One’s” Michael Sarnoski.
“Finnegan’s Foursome” After the death of their father, four siblings sort through their feelings through continuing his tradition of the family participating in an Irish golf tournament.
June 26
“Supergirl” At the end of the most recent “Superman” movie, we saw Supergirl (Milly Alcock), who is, especially compared to her “trusting is punk rock” cousin. Now she gets her own origin story. Instead of being adopted by a loving farm couple, Supergirl’s flee from the exploding Krypton landed her in an orphanage. Her only friend is Krypto, the dog. When he is poisoned, she has to fight to save him. I’m especially intrigued because of the director, Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Lars and the Real Girl”) and co-star Matthias Schoenaerts
“Lucky Strike” Rod Lurie co-wrote and directed this fact-based WWII story about a soldier (Scott Eastwood) trapped behind enemy lines during the last major German offensive, The Battle of the Bulge. He has to use the brand-new radio transmission technology to contact his division and his wits to stay hidden.
JULY
July 1
“Minions and Monsters” The little yellow guys are back! And they’re seeking monsters for a movie. What could go wrong? Voices include: Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, Bobby Moynihan, Phil LaMarr, and Trey Parker.
July 3
“Young Washington” In honor of the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution, Angel Studios has produced this origin story of our first great general and our first President. The cast includes Sir Ben Kingsley, Kelsey Grammer, Andy Serkis, and Mary-Louise Parker.
July 10
“Moana” Dwayne Johnson repeats his role as the demi-god Maui in this live action remake of the beloved Disney film about the Polynesian daughter of a chief who wants to know more about the world beyond her island.
July 17
“The Odyssey” Matt Damon plays Ulysses in in Homer’s classic story of a soldier’s adventures on the way home. Lupita Nyong’o plays Helen, whose beauty inspired the Trojan War, Tom Holland is Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, and Anne Hathaway plays Penelope, his patient wife. Zendaya is the godess Athena, and Charlize Theron is the nymph Calypso.
July 24
“The Dink” In these divided times, one of the bitterest controversies many communities face is….pickleball. Jake Johnson plays a former tennis player turned country club coach. His father (Ed Harris), runs the club and hates pickleball. Johnson takes up pickleball with a partner played by Mary Steenburgen and finds he likes it. Real-life tennis star Andy Roddick plays a version of himself as Johnson’s nemesis, and the cast includes comedy greats Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, and Chris Parnell.
July 31
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Tom Holland returns as Spider-Man, who in the last film had to erase everyone’s memory of his identity, including Mary Jane (Zendaya). Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) joins the story.
AUGUST
August 7
“One Night Only” One reason we don’t get many good rom-coms these days is that many of the obstacles that provided the com for the roms in the past have been circumvented by changes in social norms (different views today about sex before marriage) or technology (no races to the airport when people can be reached by cell phone). So, how about inventing a world in which unmarried people are only allowed to have sex one night a year? That is the premise of this film, starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro (“A Complete Unknown”).
“Cookie Queens” If you have ever bought or sold Girl Scout cookies, this documentary will surprise and delight you.
August 14
“The End of Oak Street” Anne Hathaway in one of the FIVE very different movies she has in theaters this year, plays a suburban women whose entire street gets somehow transported to a mysterious other world. It’s the third feature film from David Robert Mitchell, director of “It Follows,” and produced by J.J. Abrams.
“PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie” How can you make the PAW Patrol more exciting? Add some dinosaurs!
August 21
“The Magic Faraway Tree” The beloved children’s book by Enid Blyton is about children who move to the country and discover that their new home is next to the Enchanted Wood. Inside is the title tree, a portal to magical lands full of elves, pixies, talking creatures and adventures. The children’s parents are played by Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield.
August 28
“Coyote vs. Acme” In 1990 Ian Frazier published a funny short story in The New Yorker about Looney Tunes’ Wile E. Coyote suing the company that supplies all of the gadgets and other products that have failed to help him catch the Roadrunner for almost 80 years. The movie inspired by that story was made in 2022, combining animation and live action “Roger Rabbit”-style. Will Forte plays the lawyer who agrees to represent Wile E., and John Cena as his opposing counsel. Warner CEO decided to junk the movie to get tax benefits, breaking the hearts of the filmmakers and the many people who were looking forward to it. Ketchup Entertainment came to the rescue. I had the great pleasure of seeing many of the filmmakers and some clips at San Diego Comic-Con last year and expect this to be a great favorite for many people.
Memorial Day is more than the beginning of summer; it is a day to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. I hope you can take some time to think of those we have lost. Turner Classic Movies has an excellent line-up of classic films. Some more movies to pay your respects:
The Outpost was on my top ten list for 2020, a movie that was sadly overlooked because it came out in the early weeks of the pandemic shutdown. It is based on the book by Jake Tapper. There are war stories that are about strategy and courage and triumph over evil that let us channel the heroism of the characters on screen. And then there are war stories that are all of that but also engage in the most visceral terms with questions of purpose and meaning that touch us all. “The Outpost” is that rare film in the second category, an intimate, immersive drama from director Rod Lurie, a West Point graduate and Army veteran who knows this world inside out and brings us from the outside in. His next film, coming out this summer, is “Lucky Strike,” based on the true story of a WWII soldier trapped behind enemy lines, starring Scott Eastwood.
The Blue Angels Glen Powell, who played a pilot in “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Devotion” is also a real-life pilot who has flown with “the best of the best,” the Navy’s Blue Angels. He produced this documentary that takes us behind the scenes and into the sky, even “inverted” (upside down!) with the Blues.
Air Force Elite: Thunderbirds This 2025 Netflix documentary takes us through the history and training of the legendary flight squadron, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama.
Gardens of Stone James Caan and James Earl Jones star in a film about the 1st Battalion 3d Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Fort Myer, Virginia, the U.S. Army’s Honor Guard. They conduct the funerals of fallen soldiers and guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. Francis Ford Coppola directed this touching, elegiac story.
Hallowed Grounds This PBS documentary explores 22 overseas military cemeteries, with stories of the soldiers who are buried there and the people who keep their memories alive.
Taking Chance An officer (Kevin Bacon) escorts the body of a young Marine killed in Iraq. Each stop along the way is meaningful.
Mr. Roberts is a WWII story about a Navy cargo ship, based on the experiences of author Thomas Heggen. Henry Fonda stars in the title role or an executive officer who tries to protect the men from a tyrannical captain. Broadway, and the outstanding cast includes William Powell, James Cagney, and Oscar-winner Jack Lemmon.
Band of Brothers is the extraordinary series from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks about ordinary men who came together to do extraordinary things as soldiers in Easy Company in WWII.
Red Tails is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary heroes who risked their lives for a country that did its best to hold them back.
There are three problems in trying to make a documentary about Lorne Michaels, who created and continues to run “Saturday Night Live” (except for five years) now for more than half a century. The first is the many, many documentaries already made about the show and the people who have appeared on it, including Steve Martin, John Belushi, Chris Farley, so this latest one is a small addition to a big jigsaw puzzle. It goes over events that have been thoroughly covered elsewhere, with some new archival material, like Michaels’ brief appearances as a performer himself in Canada when he was in his 20s and from a brief substitute for “SNL” that lasted less than a dozen years.
Second, Lorne Michaels really did not want to have a documentary made about him. As his close friend Paul Simon says to director Morgan Neville in the film, “You’ll capture a guy who is not happy.” So the movie is not about guy who is not happy, but about a guy who isn’t happy to have a cameras on him. Michaels likes his life, his job, and especially his home and family very much and he is, as anyone in that job would have to be, very even-tempered.
Third, because he is so even-tempered, and often downright dull, he is not a dynamic film presence, and because his job is “SNL” that is a gigantic contrast with EVERYONE ELSE on screen. Neville tries to jazz it up a bit with some animated segments, but we have to keep coming back to Michaels, who is not introspective beyond saying how much he loves nature or analytic about what does and does not work in the show (we see him re-arrange the order of the sketches but we don’t know anything about why).
I’ve watched “SNL” since the very first episode and have stuck with it through all of the ups and downs that are documented or in many cases glossed over quickly or ignored entirely in this film. I’m enough of a fan that I enjoyed it, though it is in no way an indispensable or particularly valuable addition to the record. Any serious fan has seen plenty about the early days, the “is ‘SNL’ past its prime” headlines the rocketing unknown-to-megawatt star trajectories (Eddie Murphy) and the “wait, what’s that one’s name again” cast members, plus the firing of Norm MacDonald (here’s a great take with David Letterman).
One benefit of surrounding himself with some of the most brilliant impressionists and comedians in the world is that most of them have a take on Michaels’ slightly stentorian delivery (and on his disappointed sigh). It is a lot of fun to hear so many of them almost subconsciously slip into his voice. And it’s a lot of fun just to hear them talk about him, his quirks (the entire schedule is built around his preferring to start the day at 4 pm and he is constantly munching on popcorn). The best moments are just listening in on a conversation with comedy legends John Mulaney, Bill Hader, and Fred Armisen, or the comments from Conan O’Brien, writer Jim Downey (see the documentary about him), and Paul Simon. Mulaney, hyper-perceptive as always, tells the film’s most illuminating story.
We know, as we watch the archival footage, how many of those people have died. But there’s hardly any sense of how those losses affected him. We hear about the pressure to revitalize the show, but not what steps he took. Instead we hear him fretting about whether host Ryan Gosling has a doctor for his raspy throat. The other documentaries, the books about “SNL,” or any given episode of the show will tell you as much and be more entertaining.
Parents should know that this film has references to drinking and drug use.
Family discussion: What are some of your favorite “SNL” sketches and stars and why?
If you like this, try: the four documentaries celebrating the show’s 50th anniversary, especially the one from Questlove about the music.
Online Film Critics Awards: Sinners and One Battle After Another
Posted on January 26, 2026 at 11:05 pm
I’m pleased to be a member of the Online Film Critics Association, which announced our awards today. Lots of love for Sinners, One Battle After Another, and Jessie Buckley, who are all shaping up to be happy on Oscar night.
Copyright 2025 Warner Brothers
Best Picture (Ranked Order)
One Battle After Another (Winner)
Sinners
Sentimental Value
It Was Just an Accident
The Secret Agent
Marty Supreme
Weapons
No Other Choice
Hamnet
Train Dreams
Best Animated Feature
KPop Demon Hunters
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Best Actor
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Best Actress
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro – One Battle After Another
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Best Ensemble & Casting
Sinners
Best Original Screenplay
Sinners
Best Adapted Screenplay
One Battle After Another
Best Editing
One Battle After Another
Best Cinematography
Sinners
Best Original Score
Sinners
Best Production Design
Sinners
Best Costume Design
Sinners
Best Makeup & Hairstyling
Frankenstein
Best Sound
Sinners
Best Visual Effects
Sinners
Best Choreography (Dance & Stunt)
Sinners
Best Debut Feature
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby
Best Film Not in the English Language
Sentimental Value
Best Documentary
The Perfect Neighbor
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Colleen Atwood
Jack Nicholson
Steven Spielberg
Vittorio Storaro
Walter Murch
Special Achievement Awards
Green Film
Film Workers for Palestine
Best Non-U.S. Releases (in alphabetical order)
Aki (dir. Darlene Naponse, Canada)
Copper (dir. Nicolas Pereda, Mexico)
The Good Sister (dir. Sarah Miro Fischer, Germany)
