Movies for Memorial Day 2026

Posted on May 24, 2026 at 10:28 am

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.

Christmas Movies for the Family After You’ve Watched the Ones You Always Watch

Posted on December 9, 2025 at 7:21 pm

I love the Christmas classic movies and watch as many as I can every year, including at least a couple of versions of “A Christmas Carol” and Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in “White Christmas.” But there are many great Christmas films that don’t get mentioned as often and I like to remind families that these are worth making time for as well.

1. The Nativity Story This sincere and respectful story is a good way to remember that Christmas is about more than presents and parties. “Whale Rider’s” Keisha Castle-Hughes has a shy but dignified and resolute air and she glows believably as the very young woman who is selected as the mother of Jesus. And “Drive’s” Oliver Isaac effectively conveys tenderness, doubt, courage, and transcendence as Joseph.

2. A Christmas Memory Truman Capote’s bittersweet memory of his childhood Christmas making fruitcakes with his elderly cousin, the only relative who cared about him is beautifully filmed with the magnificent Geraldine Page and Capote himself reading the narration.

3. Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas The California Raisins guys put together this Christmas special, with the highlight the funniest-ever performance of “Carol of the Bells.”

4. Come to the Stable Loretta Young and Celeste Holm are French nuns trying to raise money to build a hospital. Their faith and goodness transforms those they meet.

5. Little Women “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents” is the first line of this classic novel based on the loving if sometimes tumultuous family of author Louisa May Alcott. The movie opens with an important Christmas lesson about the joy of giving.

6. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Based on the classic book, this stars Loretta Swit as the mother of six rambunctious kids who insist on playing roles in the church pageant.

7. This Christmas I love this movie about a family with five adult children who return home to celebrate Christmas with their mother and youngest brother. The outstanding cast includes Regina King, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, and Chris Brown. Be sure to watch through the credits to see a great dance number.

8. Desk Set Before Google, companies had human beings to track down information. Katherine Hepburn plays the head of the all-female research department for a television network and Spencer Tracy is the engineer who is installing the company’s first computer, which takes up a whole wall and uses punch cards and vacuum tubes. Sparks fly — and not just in the equipment.

9. Die Hard Bruce Willis plays a cop visiting his estranged wife at her office Christmas party when the building is taken over by bad guys led by Alan Rickman in this action-movie classic.

10. The Polar Express Tom Hanks stars in this animated story based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg about a magical train ride to the North Pole.

11. Home Alone This comedy smash hit stars Macauley Culkin as a little boy who is accidentally left home when his family goes away for the holidays and has to take care of himself and guard the house from a couple of inept thieves. The slapstick is a bit over the top but the message of Christmas is surprisingly touching.

12. Annie The story of the plucky orphan from the comic pages became one of the biggest Broadway musicals of all time and one of its highlights is Christmas with Daddy Warbucks. There are several versions, all great family movies.

13. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Story “Colorful” is not a colorful enough word to describe a fantasy movie musical so maximalist that even the title is overstuffed. “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey” packs a lot into the movie’s title, including two character names and the dual ideas of something cute and something a little more heartwarming, with a touch of the spiritual. The setting is a fantasy Dickensian steampunk, and there are musical numbers and magical toys and a great cast including Phylicia Rashad, Forest Whitaker, and Keegan-Michael Key.

14. Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas This charming but lesser-known Muppet story is about a loving but poor otter otter and his mother who each want to buy a gift for the other, so both enter a music competition with a $50 prize.

15. Comfort and Joy A disc jockey (Bill Paterson), recently dumped by his girlfriend, gets caught up in an angry competition between rival Italian ice cream vendors. One of the most poignant movie scenes of all time is in this film, when we him telling his listeners about his cozy Christmas. We see him, that is, but of course his listeners do not, and the picture he creates for them of a crackling fire and hot toddy is utterly at odds with the spare, florescent-lit studio he is speaking from. But there is a happy ending.

My Best Movie Mothers eBook is Free for Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 9, 2025 at 10:04 am

In honor of Mother’s Day, my book, 50 Must-See Movies: Mothers will be free from May 9-14, 2025.

No relationship is more primal, more fraught, more influential, more worried over, more nourishing when good and more devastating when bad that our connection to our mothers. The first eyes to look at us with love, the first arms to hold us, Mom is the one who first keeps us fed and warm, who applauds our first steps and kisses our scrapes and takes our temperature by kissing our forehead. She’s also the one who keeps people in endless years of psychoanalysis for failing to make her children feel loved and safe. Mom inspires a lot of movies in every possible category, from comedy to romance to drama to crime to animation to horror, from the lowest-budget indie to the biggest-budget prestige film. A lot of women have been nominated for Oscars for playing mothers and just about every actress over age 20 has appeared as a mother in at least one movie.

There are innumerable ways of mothering and all of them show up in the movies. There are cookie-baking, apron-wearing mothers who always know just the right comforting thing to say. There are stylish, sophisticated, wealthy mothers and mothers who do not have enough money to feed their children. There are mothers with PhDs and mothers who cannot read. There are mothers of every race and religion and many species on earth and in outer space (remember “Alien”).

There are terrifying mothers who abuse or abandon their children or coldly deploy them like weapons of mass destruction. There are mothers who give good advice and endless support and mothers who try to push their children to take the wrong jobs and marry the wrong people. There are super-strict mothers and super-lax mothers, mothers who want to know every detail of their children’s lives even when they are grown up and mothers who barely remember that they have any children at all even when they are young. There are mothers of children with special needs who fight fiercely to make sure they have the fullest and most independent lives they can. There are children who love and support their mothers and children who break their mothers’ hearts with their selfishness and cruelty.

And there are those very special souls who remind us that motherhood does not require a biological connection. Stepmothers and adoptive mothers are as vitally important on screen as they are in the lives of those lucky enough to be mothered by them.

“A boy’s best friend is his mother,” says a character whose mother is central to the story even though she never appears in the film. (Spoiler alert: the quote comes from Norman Bates in “Psycho.”) In “Stop or My Mom Will Shoot,” tough guy Sylvester Stallone plays a cop who mother comes along on his investigation whether he wants her to or not. In “Oedipus Wrecks,” one of three short films that make up the compilation “New York Stories,” Woody Allen plays a lawyer whose mother finds the ultimate way to embarrass him. And don’t get me started on Jason’s mother in the “Friday the 13^th” movies.

I have selected 50 of my favorite movie mothers, including classic films like “The Sound of Music” and “Little Women” along with forgotten or overlooked films like “Stella Dallas,” “Claudia and David,” and “Dear Frankie.” Actresses like Anne Revere and Spring Byington made careers out of wonderful performances as mothers and I have included some of their best. I have a special affection for those based on real-life mothers, especially those based on the mothers of the writers who told their stories, like Sally Field’s Oscar-winning performance in “Places in the Heart.” But it is clear that in some way each of the mothers in these movies is inspired by the unique joys and frustrations of the woman we love first.

Beyond The Usual: Christmas Movies for Families to Enjoy

Posted on December 9, 2024 at 8:07 am

I love the Christmas classic movies and watch as many as I can every year. But there are many great Christmas films that don’t get mentioned as often and I like to remind families that these are worth making time for as well.

1. The Nativity Story This sincere and respectful story is a good way to remember that Christmas is about more than presents and parties. “Whale Rider’s” Keisha Castle-Hughes has a shy but dignified and resolute air and she glows believably as the very young woman who is selected as the mother of Jesus. And Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) effectively conveys tenderness, doubt, courage, and transcendence as Joseph.

2. A Christmas Memory Truman Capote’s bittersweet memory of his childhood Christmas making fruitcakes with his elderly cousin, the only relative who cared about him, is beautifully filmed with the magnificent Geraldine Page as the fruitcake-baking cousin and Capote himself reading the narration.

3. Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas The California Raisins guys put together this Christmas special, with the highlight the funniest-ever performance of “Carol of the Bells.”

4. Come to the Stable Loretta Young and Celeste Holm are French nuns trying to raise money to build a hospital. Their faith and goodness transform those they meet.

5. Little Women “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents” is the first line of this classic novel based on the loving if sometimes tumultuous family of author Louisa May Alcott. All of the lovely versions open with an important Christmas lesson about the joy of giving.

6. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Based on the classic book, this stars Judy Greer as a mother trying to cope with six rambunctious kids who insist on playing the lead roles in the church pageant. There’s an earlier version with Loretta Swit.

7. This Christmas I love this movie about a family with five adult children who return home to celebrate Christmas with their mother and youngest brother. The all-star cast includes Regina King, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, and Chris Brown. Be sure to watch through the credits to see a great dance number.

9. Die Hard Bruce Willis plays a cop visiting his estranged wife at her office Christmas party when the building is taken over by bad guys led by Alan Rickman in this action-movie classic, and yes, it is a Christmas movie.

10. The Polar Express Tom Hanks stars in this animated story based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg about a magical train ride to the North Pole.

11. Home Alone This comedy smash hit stars Macauley Culkin as a little boy who is accidentally left home when his family goes away for the holidays and has to take care of himself and guard the house from a couple of inept thieves. The slapstick is over the top but the message of Christmas is surprisingly touching.

13. The Holiday Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz swap houses and find love with Jack Black and Jude Law in one of Nancy Meyers’ most endearing romances.

14. The Man Who Invented Christmas Dan Stevens stars as Charles Dickens, who is under enormous family and financial pressure to produce a new book that will sell. It is a delight to see how the story of “The Christmas Carol” comes together.

15. Klaus (Netflix) In this absolutely gorgeous animated film, the father of a spoiled young man punishes him by sending him to a remote snow-covered village and putting him to work. The young man ends up inventing some of the most beloved Christmas traditions.

Thanksgiving Movies for Families 2024

Posted on November 25, 2024 at 10:01 pm

There are some great Thanksgiving movies for adults. And here are some for the whole family to share.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving This is the one with the famous episode about Charlie Brown trying to kick the football Lucy keeps snatching away from him. And Peppermint Patty invites herself to Charlie Brown’s house for Thanksgiving and he is too kind-hearted to tell her that he won’t be there because his family is going to his grandmother’s. When the Peanuts gang comes over for a feast prepared by Charlie Brown himself, Patty gets angry at being served toast and jelly beans. But when she realizes how hard her friend tried to be hospitable, she learns what gratitude really means.

Miracle on 34th Street is a Christmas movie, but it begins with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and it is a great family movie (for those who are comfortable with questions about Santa’s being real. The original is a classic with an adorable Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for playing Kris Kringle. But the remake is nice, too.

Dora’s Thanksgiving Parade Dora the Explorer has to save the day when the parade float gets lost.

Squanto and the First Thanksgiving , Native American actor Graham Greene and musician Paul McCandless tell the story of Squanto’s extraordinary generosity and leadership in reaching out to the Pilgrims after he had been sold into slavery by earlier European arrivals in the New World.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Okay, I have to admit I don’t love this movie the way so many other people do. Parts of it seem mean-spirited to me. But we can all identify with the frustrations of holiday travel and with the unexpected connections we sometimes are lucky enough to find along the way.

An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving Jacqueline Bisset stars in this warm-hearted tale, based on a short story by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women).

My favorite Thanksgiving movies are “What’s Cooking?” with four families preparing for the holiday and “Pieces of April,” about a family, including a terminally ill mother, driving to an estranged daughter for Thanksgiving. Both are funny, touching, and wise. Wishing all of you a Thanksgiving filled with gratitude for being together, even the crazy parts.