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 over the weekend to think of those we have lost. Some 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.
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.
The title makes it clear. Like “Bad Teacher,” “Bad Santa,” and “Bad Day at Black Rock,” this is a very dark comedy about an evening that does not go well. And then it goes extremely not well.
There’s a lot of pressure on this Friday night shabbos (Sabbath) family dinner at the home of religiously observant Jewish parents Richard (David Paymer) and Ellen (Kyra Sedgewick). Joining them are their three adult children, David (Jon Bass), Abby (Milana Vayntrub), and Adam (Theo Taplitz). Just about everyone is hiding something or worried about something or lying about something or all of the above.
Abby brings her boyfriend, Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman). She does not want her parents to know that they drove, which is forbidden on the Sabbath. David brings his fiancee, Meg (Meghan Leathers). Richard and Ellen are not happy that Meg is not Jewish, though somewhat mollified because she is studying Judaism with plans to convert. This dinner will be the first time Meg’s Catholic parents from Wisconsin meet David’s family and everyone is concerned about how that is going to go, especially since Meg has not told her parents that she is going to convert. Contributing to the pressure on David and Meg, it seems everyone in town knows about the expectations for this meal. They stop at the legendary Barney Greengrass deli to pick up challah (the braided bread traditionally eaten at Shabbos dinner), where they are waited on by real-life Gary Greengrass, who learned about the meeting of the two sets of parents from Richard. At the apartment building, the affable doorman, Jordan (Wu-Tang’s Method Man, in an irresistibly charming performance) says that “Richie” has told him all about it, and that David’s family is his favorite. Method Man just about steals the film as the ultimate ride or die friend of the family.
The family’s youngest son is fragile, highly sensitive Adam, who does not have a job and still lives with his parents. Richard and Ellen are constantly trying to reassure him that he is doing fine and loved by everyone, but he is only too aware that his family is worried and perhaps a little disappointed. He takes the anti-anxiety psychotropic drug Klonopin, and apparently some other medications as well. It is clear that at least some members of the family are concerned that his behavior might be disturbing for Meg’s parents. He is probably imagining a scene like the one in “Annie Hall,” where Woody Allen’s New York Jewish character meets Diane Keaton’s very Christian midwestern family, and imagines they see him as an Orthodox Hassid.
So, a lot of pressure. And then, as noted, things get very, very bad. As Meg’s parents, John (John Bedford Lloyd) and Beth (Catherine Curtain) are on their way, one of the people in the apartment is accidentally killed, implicating Adam. And then, along the lines of the recent “The Trouble with Jessica,” the group decides not to call an ambulance or the police but somehow cover it up, and the rest of the film is farce.
In “The Trouble with Jessica,” the people at a dinner party decide to cover up a death for selfish reasons. What gives “Bad Shabbos,” a lighter tone is the way the family immediately decides that their priority is protecting a vulnerable person and, of course, not making Meg’s parents think that they are the kind of people who have dead bodies in their apartment. Their logic — and their morality — may be wobbly, but it is hard not to sympathize with them. There is an extremely sweet moment when Meg delivers the d’var torah (a brief discussion of the meaning of a passage from the first five books of the Bible) to demonstrate what she is learning in her class. And it is very funny that the family keeps trying to persuade John and Beth that every unusual action is part of their tradition, expecting that anything Jewish is so unfamiliar to them they will just try to be polite and go along with it.
What makes the film especially engaging is the way it gets the details of a New York Jewish shabbos meal right. The tone of the film may be heightened, exaggerated for comic purposes, but unlike too many other portrayals this film never makes the characters into caricatures and the details are precise and affectionate. It’s very dark, but it is also very funny.
Parents should know that this is a comedy about a dead body and the lies and cover-ups in response to an accident. Characters use some strong language. They drink wine and misuse medication. There is an accident and brief disturbing images. A character struggles with mental illness.
Family discussion: Why did the family agree to lie? Were they right?
The Thunderbirds of the Air Force are the elite display team pilots who give demonstrations around the country to inspire Americans with a show of extraordinary courage and skill. This documentary, with producers that include Barack and Michelle Obama, is like Glenn Powell’s “The Blue Angels,” about the Navy’s elite flying group. It takes us inside the training that leads up to the annual tour of 62 shows across the country, with “flying acrobatics” and are “meant to look nearly impossible.” The signs on the doors they walk through to the airstrip say “Fly Like Champions” and “Blind Trust,” the first a goal, the second the foundational principle of the team, because they fly in such tight formation that the slightest error from one of them puts all of them at risk. As we see in the film, there have been a number of crashes and many Thunderbirds pilots have died.
Copyright 2025 Netflix
The pilots serve for two years, and each year half are new. So we begin with the arrival of three pilots joining the team. They are there because of their outstanding skills, but they have to unlearn as well as learn. The experience of the Tom Cruise in “Top Gun” types trained for combat or those “Right Stuff” types trained for testing new equipment are not exactly transferable and some are completely opposite. Combat pilots have two goals, to hit the target and stay alive. Thunderbirds literally are told to “divorce yourself from your usual survival instincts” because the maneuvers they perform are designed to keep them “micro-seconds from a life-threatening situation.” We see the impact of G-force acrobatics that make a 200-pound pilot into a 2000-pounder, making it impossible for oxygen to reach the head, so they pass out.
And we see that these pilots find all of that “frickin’ awesome.” One points to the number 5 painted on the side of the plane. It is upside down, because that way it will appear right-side up during the demonstration.
We spend much of the time with the boss, number one, called Astro (like the Blue Angels and the Top Guns, they have call signs — my favorite was the flight surgeon, who goes by Angry). His dream from his earliest childhood was to be an astronaut, and his parents proudly show us his grade school drawings. But when the Thunderbirds were in need, after a 2018 crash, they needed someone to make some changes, and his unique skills as a graduate of both combat and test flight training made him the ideal candidate. His wife says that she checked the mortality numbers for the Thunderbirds; ten percent. But the commitment to “service over self” meant they both understood that was where he needed to be.
We see one pilot struggle with his position and the way the others support him. And we see that the unquestioned dedication to “service over self” is as important to them as their constant training and striving for perfection.
We also see the support they get from the maintenance crews, every bit as devoted to excellence as the pilots. Their first demonstration at the Daytona races, is not perfect. They are supposed to appear on “brave,” the last word of the National Anthem. They’re off by seconds, but to them it feels like months. Astro’s reaction: “We have something to work on.”
The better we understand what goes into the maneuvers, the more we appreciate the skills that make it possible for them to fly in such tight formations, wings almost touching, each relying on the others to stay stable.
Copyright 2025 Netflix
The cinematography is stunning, with special thanks to Arial Coordinator (and stunt pilot) Kevin LaRossa II, also the genius behind the air footage of “Top Gun: Maverick,” “The Blue Angels,” “The Avengers,” any many more. The air maneuvers are dazzling. But it is the hearts, integrity, and courage of the Thunderbirds that are unforgettable.
Parents should know that this film includes references to airplane fatalities.
Family discussion: What made Astro decide to withdraw from the astronaut program? Do you agree with his decision? Go to one of the air shows and stay after to talk to the pilots.
If you like this, try: “The Blue Angels” and the “Top Gun” movies
Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language
Profanity:
Brief strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
None
Violence/ Scariness:
Extended peril and violence, guns, fire, fights, chases, explosions, stunts, some graphic and disturbing images
Diversity Issues:
Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:
May 23, 2025
Yes, Tom Cruise runs. Very fast. Even at one point when he is in London and could probably get there faster in a cab, though for some reason there are no cars anywhere as he races across Westminster Bridge. He also does that mask thing where the disguise is so good that no one can tell it is him until he dramatically lifts the prosthetics from his head. And he attends a black tie gala. This is all in the first 15 minutes or so.
Copyright 2025 Paramount
Thus, we are able to get what we came for and get on with the new stuff, which also includes running and fight scenes, sometimes shirtless, blue wire/red wire bomb defusing decisions under extreme time pressure, Ethan Hunt telling everyone to just trust him, several people telling him that he is the only one who can save the world (“although you never followed orders, you never let us down”), recaps of the previous films with some reckoning and a bit of retconning, a very welcome return of a character from the first Cruise “Mission Impossible” in 1996, vastly over-qualified actors in near-cameos, and, of course, absolutely bananas but very exciting action scenes, one under water, one in the air. In other words, like Ethan Hunt himself, they understood the assignment.
You don’t need to remember much or even have seen part one because (a) they tell you what happened and (b) it doesn’t matter because all you need to know is that they need to get The Thing (and the things you need to disarm The Thing) or it will be very bad for the everyone on the planet.
The MacGuffin is an AI that is getting ready to destroy all of humanity, close to gaining control of every nuclear weapon in the world. This is of great concern to the US President (Angela Bassett) and to those who think they can take control of it and therefore of everything. The primary villain in this category is Gabriel (Esai Morales), but like The Ring in the LoTR films, the AI known as The Entity is so powerful that even honorable people can be seduced away from destroying it and into wanting it for themselves. It is a “truth-eating parasite processing our deepest personal secrets” that “knows precisely how to undermine our every strength and exploit our every weakness.” Time for only the purest of heart and the fastest of running men to save the day.
Like Harry Potter and the horcruxes or a character in a video game, stopping the Entity requires going to many places to obtain different items and perform various tasks. These mini-MacGuffins include the source code for the AI, which is in a sunken Russian submarine and the “pill” to shut it down, created by Ethan’s teammate Luther (Ving Rhames) and stolen by Gabriel, a variation on “Independence Day’s” virus uploaded to an alien operating system.
Thankfully, a lot of the communication between Ethan and his team is meaningful looks. The dialogue can get heavy-handed. There is not much of it, though, because everyone knows why we’re here, and it is not witty remarks. (One funny line relates to The Entity’s appeal to viral conspiracy types.)
There’s a big build-up to how dangerous and difficult the dive to the Russian submarine is and the high probability that it won’t work and Ethan will die, but hey, the name of the series isn’t “Mission Possible.” As with the last episode’s train scene, still to my mind the best action scene in the series, the submarine scene makes very good use of shifting weight and huge, heavy things that have to be ducked. After making it very clear that the only thing keeping Ethan alive at that depth and temperature is the super-high-tech diving suit, he has to shed it, so we see him swim around in his boxers.
The showstopper is an arial battle between two colorful biplanes, one red, one yellow. At this point, the film is cutting back and forth between four or five desperately high-pressure situations, but it is the planes that will forever show up in film school and highlight reels.
If you remember anything about the first film, it is most likely the hanging from the ceiling heist at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. There was a humorous button on that scene of a confused CIA employee entering the room just as Ethan was exiting, leaving his knife behind. That employee was immediately transferred to the most remote location under the CIA’s jurisdiction as a consequence of the theft. He is computer genius William Donloe (Rolf Saxon), married to an Inuit woman named Tapessa (Lucy Tulugarjuk), and they are the two best new characters in this installment. “Severance’s” Tramell Tillman is a delight as a US submarine captain, but Hannah Waddingham, Janet McTeer, Carey Elwes, Nick Offerman, and Mark Gatiss are not given much to do (though Waddingham’s American accent is quite good, perhaps from listening to her co-stars in four years of “Ted Lasso”). Henry Czerny returns and is just right as the frustrated head of the CIA who thinks he knows better than Ethan. I think we know who’s right on that.
I usually say that in action films, everything depends on the villain. In “Mission Impossible” movies, everything depends on the stunts, the “Fast and Furious”-style found family of the team, and the unquenchable charisma of Tom Cruise. Fortunately, all are here. Happy summer and happy summer movies!
Parents should know that this film is non-stop action-style peril and violence with guns, chases, fights, and explosions. Characters are injured and killed. There is some strong language.
Family discussion: Movie villains often reflect contemporary controversies. What does this movie tell us about the possible outcome of our current decisions? Why did the President change her mind? What are Ethan’s regrets? People trust Ethan for different reasons. How many did we see?
If you like this, try: the other “Mission Impossible” movies
Rated R for language, some sexual content, and nudity
Profanity:
Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Alcohol and smoking
Violence/ Scariness:
References to sad deaths, car accident
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
May 9, 2025
I’m glad to say this is not yet another re-working of one of Jane Austen’s books, with a modern-day heroine being too quick to judge a moody but honorable Darcy and too slow to judge a superficially charming but immoral Wickham. Instead, it is not Elizabeth Bennett Agathe (Camille Rutherford) despairs of becoming; it is Austen herself.
Copyright 2025 Sony Pictures Classics
Agathe works at the legendary Shakespeare and Co, the English-language bookstore in Paris, but she dreams of being a writer. Okay, there is some initial hostility leading to attraction here, though none of Austen’s heroines accidentally walked stark naked into the bedroom of a man she’d just met. But as people in Paris might say, “Autres temps, autres mœurs.”
She has written some chapters — a romance, of course — but the trauma of losing her parents in a car accident and her own insecurity keep her from making any progress. She also cannot ride in a car, move out of her sister’s apartment, or begin a romantic relationship of her own. When her co-worker and best friend Felix (Pablo Pauly) submits an application in her name to a “Jane Austen” writer’s retreat, she begins to take the steps to move forward with her work and with her life. Rutherford makes Agathe very appealing and the screenplay by director Laura Piani, has warmth and charm. There is even a discussion about the value of stories that connected to Austen’s defense of the novel in Northanger Abbey.
The retreat is run by a warm-hearted but slightly eccentric couple, Beth (Liz Crowther) and Todd (Alan Fairbairn). We do not spend much time with the other writers at the retreat except to see that they are all writing while Agnethe is not.
Like Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, Marianne in Sense and Sensibility, Catherine in Northanger Abbey, and Anne in Persuasion, Emma in Emma, and Fanny in Mansfield Park, Agathe has to decide between two archetypical romantic possibilities. Will it be the friends-to-lovers Felix, who kisses her when he drops her off at the retreat? Agathe worries that he will “breadcrumb” her, alternating leading her on and ignoring her. Or will it be the enemies-to-lovers Oliver (Charlie Anson), the son of the couple who run the retreat who is a professor of contemporary literature and clashes with her immediately and then accidentally sees her naked?
Rutherford is an appealing heroine and the story is gently told, respectful of Agathe’s difficulty in recovering from trauma. While the romantic resolution is satisfying, it is not the solution, but rather a reflection of the courage and determination Agathe has relied on in addressing the issues that keeping her stuck. Miss Austen would approve.
Parents should know that this movie has nudity, non-explicit sexual situations, and sexual references. Characters drink, smoke, and use strong language.
Family discussion: Why did Agathe and her sister react so differently to the loss of their parents? Which man did you think Agathe would end up with and why?
If you like this, try: “Austenland” with Keri Russell, and of course Jane Austen’s books and the many movie adaptations
