A Dog’s Perfect Christmas

Posted on November 4, 2026 at 6:22 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Not rated
Profanity:	Brief strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Sad offscreen death, depression and anxiety, serious illness of a parent
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	November 4, 2026

A puppy is abandoned by the side of the road. A mother named Juliana (Kathleen Rose Perkins) is rushed to the hospital. A father (Milo Ventimiglia as Hunter) has a tough new boss and his job is on the line. His father is a devastated widower (Dennis Quaid as Sander) who has stopped talking to just about everyone but his dog, Winstead (voiced by Thomas Haden Church). The teenage daughter Ello (Greta Gloag), a gifted figure skater, is picked on by the high school alpha mean girls, and just wants to be invisible.

The entire family is under extreme stress. “I don’t have the bandwidth to take on a puppy,” Hunter says, understandably. But that puppy, now named Ruby, has become very important to Ello. And somehow, with the help of Ruby and Winstead, it all comes together for a Christmas that may not be what anyone envisioned but is what everyone agrees is perfect.

The charm of the films based on W. Bruce Cameron’s warm-hearted stories about flawed but endearing human characters is that they are told from a dog’s point of view. “A Dog’s Purpose” and “A Dog’s Journey” showed us how these pure-hearted, devoted creatures sustain us, link us, and even inspire us. Those films were episodic, while this one stays with one family and lets us get involved in each of their storylines.

We get a brief flashback of then-puppy Winstead’s Christmas arrival in his new “pack,” the close, loving, and happy Goss family. And then, two years later, after the Sander’s wife has died, he is now living with, or, more accurately, staying in a bedroom of the home Hunter, Juliana, daughter-in-law, Ello, and rambunctious toddler twins.

Sander is so depressed he does not shave or cut his hair or join the family for meals. He barely speaks, except to Winstead. Hunter is distracted by work. Juliana is hospitalized and in an induced coma. Hunter’s very demanding new boss is Mrs. O’Brien, played by director and co-screenwriter Cathryn Michon. She has been brought in to decide whether his entire division should be shut down. and she tells him that if his big project to create an open plan for a collaborative workplace fails, she will fire him. She does have a son who is transferring to Ello’s school, and Hunter volunteers Ello as a guide. He turns out to be a dreamboat ( Ethan Lewis as Sean).

Sander meets Claire (Mary Steenburgen, as always, a welcome source of wit, warmth, and light) who shares his love for Joni Mitchell and dogs. The various crises and opportunities — and the dogs, bring the family together just in time for December 25th. This film skillfully balances humor and romance — and frisky, lovable pooches, with insightful portrayals of loss, grief, anxiety, and depression. And it gently shows us how the scariest and saddest moments can bring us together by reminding us how fragile we are and how much we need each other. As Joni Mitchell might say, “Don’t it always seem to know you don’t know what it’s got ’til it’s gone.” In this story, after it’s gone, it can be rebuilt…with some help from dogs, in time for Christmas.

Parents should know that this movie includes a sad (offscreen) death, serious illness, grief, adolescent angst, mild sexual references, some potty humor, brief strong language, and family stress and struggles. Characters lie to get what they want.

Family discussion: What pet has been important in your life?

If you like this, try: the book, or the picture book for children, and the books and movies A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey and the book by co-screenwriter/director/Mrs. O’Brien Cathryn Michon that plays an important role in the film.

Streaming on Netflix

Wicker

Posted on October 30, 2026 at 9:22 am

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for sexual content, language and brief full nudity
Profanity:	Strong, colorful, and profane language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Peril, character seriously injured
Diversity Issues:	Class differences a theme of the film
Date Released to Theaters:	October 30, 2026

“Wicker” is a joyously bawdy fairy tale, a cheeky remix of “Beauty and the Beast,” and a sly satire of social hierarchies, with some poignant themes of mortality. It is wildly unexpected and a ton of fun.

It takes place in one of those timeless, placeless, fairy tale settings where you might spot Snow White or Belle in the town square. It’s not spotless, though. It is authentically muddy, and our heroine, who is the local fisherwoman, is so often insulted about the way she smells we can almost feel we are inhaling the scene of the fish she is delivering. In this community, no one has a name; everyone is known only by job, or the profession of one’s husband. So Olivia Colman plays Fisherwoman, who thanks to her profession, her odor, and her lack of a husband, is at the lowest rung of the town’s highly hierarchical social strata. At a town wedding, where one of the customs is to put the bride’s throat in a dog collar-style choker, Fisherwoman is mocked by being told she is the next to be married.

Fisherwoman visits the town has a Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) and asks him to weave her a husband. He readily agrees, and shortly one arrives. Inside the intricately woven wicker is Alexander Skarsgard, still extremely dashing and handsome. And sound designer Andy Neil makes the squeaky/creaky sounds of the wicker a key part of the character, subtly shifting as the character gets less stiff and more, well, human. He turns out to be a very satisfactory husband, devoted to Fisherwoman’s happiness in bed and around the house (except stoking the fire because he is quite flammable). She soon glows with the pure happiness of being devotedly loved. And the woman at the top of the social hierarchy, Tailor’s Wife (Elizabeth Debicki) discovers that it makes her very uncomfortable not to be able to feel superior. Fisherwoman is much too happy to care or even notice that other women in the town are envying her, much less that one of them might want to find a way to make her life less enviable.

Thanks to a very game cast, he film transitions seamlessly from wildly outrageous humor to thoughtfully explored themes of social hierarchies, mortality, tender romance, and what it really means to be human.

Parents should know that this movie is very explicit in its portrayal of sex, with some nudity and very strong and crude language. There is some peril and a character is badly injured.

Family discussion: What do the women of this town envy about Fisherwoman’s romance? Why does that make Tailor’s Wife so upset? Why are people identified only by their professions or the professions of the men in their lives? What will happen next?

If you like this, try: “Save Yourselves!” by the same writer/directors

Wildwood

Posted on October 23, 2026 at 7:36 am

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for thematic material, language, brief partial nudity\|Bloody Images, strong fantasy violence, suicide-related material
Profanity:	Some schoolyard language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended peril and violence including intense battle scenes, fire, arrows, guns, sad deaths including devastating death of a child, reference to suicide
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	October 23, 2026

The latest from stop-motion animation studio LAIKA is one of the best films of the year. It is an astonishing achievement, spectacularly beautiful, touching, exciting, and meaningful.

“Andi Mack’s” Peyton Elizabeth Lee provides the voice for Prue McNeel, the impatient, impetuous daughter of gentle-hearted hippie-ish parents (Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine), and the older sister of a toddler named Mac. Prue’s parents go out, leaving her to babysit, and warning that her brother cannot leave the house. She immediately ignores that warning, pops him into a cart behind her bicycle, and takes him out into the world.

Anyone who has been to Portland Oregon (where LAIKA is based) will be captivated by the warm-hearted and very accurate portrayal of the city as Prue and Mac stop at a coffee shop and a playground. Everything goes fine except for Prue’s being annoyed by a shy classmate who clearly has a crush on her (Jacob Tremblay as Curtis) until a murder of crows (that is the correct collective term) captures him and flies off to “the impassable wilderness,” a forest no one can enter.

Prue races off on her bicycle, not noticing that Curtis is in the cart. Somehow (we will learn more about how) she is able to enter the forest, where she immediately sees coyotes in military-style uniforms, talking to each other. This is her first hint and ours that she has entered a place where most of her understanding of the world — and of herself — will be challenged.

Prue and Curtis are quickly separated and have a variety of different encounters with magical creatures, most often in dire peril. Every single part of the adventure is gorgeously imagined, with exquisite, astonishingly intricate, details. And then there are the battle scenes, as vast and visceral as any WWII film. You could watch this film a dozen times and every one will be rewarding and illuminating. Now more than ever, we can appreciate the workmanship and human personality that AI can never achieve. Every stich on the tiny sweaters, every feather, leaf, and flower, every door and window, every store sign and uniform button, every location, from a burned-out field to a grand but ominous castle, bears the literal imprint of a human artisan’s hand. It is not a coincidence that Prue’s parents are crafters.

The characters are all rich, vital, and engaging. Carey Mulligan voices the Dowager Governess, an antagonist who is not motivated by greed or power but by love and grief. We can hear the pain and struggle she feels. Angela Bassett’s warm voice gives the The General, a large bird who is ruler of the Avian Principality, compassion and grandeur. We get a glimpse over the end credits of the innumerable faces that are swapped in and out of the characters to make their dialogue and emotions so vivid they dissolve the line between human and puppet. The visuals are enthralling. The story is engrossing, with the power of myth and a heroine whose adventure will test every part of her. “Wildwood” is an instant classic, to be cherished for generations.

Parents should know that this is a PG-13 film with intense battle scenes, a suicide, a sad death, and major characters, including a baby, in dire peril. The film includes some strong language and references to infertility.

Family discussion: Why didn’t Prue listen to her parents?

If you like this, try: LAIKA’s other films, including Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Paranorman

Sense and Sensibility

Posted on October 14, 2026 at 5:41 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for some thematic elements, partial nudity and brief violence
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Social drinking
Violence/ Scariness:	Duel (no one hurt)
Diversity Issues:	Class issues
Date Released to Theaters:	October 16, 2026

The new version of “Sense and Sensibility” is based on the classic Jane Austen book about two sisters, which has already inspired a beloved 1995 film starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet with Thompson’s Oscar-winning screenplay, as well as a 1971 four-part BBC miniseries, a 1981 seven-part BBC miniseries, a three-part BBC miniseries, two Hallmark movies, as well as many lightly inspired variations including one starring the Duff sisters and one called “From Prada to Nada.” So, any new version should find some way to justify itself by showing us some new insight or some improvement in acting or script. This latest version does not meet that test, but it does remind us why the story endures over the generations. The Emma Thompson version directed by Ang Lee is still the best, but this one, written and directed by women, is a pleasure to watch, despite some odd departures from the source material.

As in all of the previous versions and as indicated by the title, the two devoted sisters represent two different ways of looking at the world. Elinor Dashwood (Daisy Edgar-Jones) represents sense with an outlook that is practical and analytical. Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) is passionate, impulsive, and dreamy. Director Georgia Oakley and screenwriter Diana Reid introduce us to Marianne as she is peacefully lying in a field and she is most often seen outdoors, while Elinor is usually inside.As the story begins, the girls’ father has died. As we know all too well from the literature of and about the period, that means their home will be inherited by their brother John (Tom Brooke of “Slow Horses”), because property almost always was entailed – automatically inherited by — the male heirs. John arrives with his selfish wife Fanny (Stacy Martin), who makes no effort to hide her wish that Marianne and Elinor, along with their mother, (Caitríona Balfe of “Outlander) and sister Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) would leave as soon as possible. While they try to find a place they can afford, Fanny’s shy brother Edward (George MacKay) comes for a visit. He and Elinor quickly become friends. While her behavior is perfectly proper, she and her mother begin to think he might propose. But he does not. And soon the Dashwoods have to accept the only offer of a new home they have, on the property of a distant relative, the warm-hearted but raucous and gossipy Mrs. Jennings (Fiona Shaw). Marianne, outdoors as usual, twists her ankle and is rescued by the handsome and very dashing Mr. Willoughby (Frank Dillane, who played the teenaged Tom Riddle in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”). Despite Elinor’s pleas to be careful, Marianne loses her heart to him immediately and is certain he will propose to her. When he leaves abruptly, she is devastated.

One wise choice in this film was casting actors closer to the ages of the characters in the book. Winslet was 19 when she played Marianne, but Thompson and Grant were in their mid-30s. Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles are young enough to understand their characters’ more naive choices. The use of the settings, glowingly filmed by Arnaud Potier, enhances the story. MacKay and Balfe are very good, and so is Bodhi Rae Breathnach as the younger sister, Margaret. The stand-out is the always-great Shaw, who makes Mrs. Jennings less of a caricature than in some of the other versions.

It is difficult to imagine any reason for some of the departures from the book than a lack of confidence in the audience attention span. Changing the character of Lucy Steele (Ceara Coveney) from the crass daughter of a middle-class landlord to recently impoverished upper class makes her role in the story less compelling. And there is simply no possible reason to insert a ridiculous duel.

Austen’s story and characters, appealing young performers, beautiful cinematography and score (Roger Goula) make this a worthy watch and a reason to be optimistic about the inevitable future version.

Parents should know that this film has brief partial nudity and brief violence (a duel, but no one gets hurt).

Family discussion: Are you more like Elinor or Marianne? Why has this story been so beloved for centuries?

If you like this, try: the book by Jane Austen and the Thompson/Grant/Winslet/Rickman version

Verity

Posted on October 1, 2026 at 5:14 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for for sexual content, some nudity, language, violence and bloody images
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol, vaping, pills
Violence/ Scariness:	Murder, peril, disturbing and violent content
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	October 2, 2026

I can understand why BookTok-to-besteller author Colleen Hoover wrote a book about a bestselling author. And I can understand why two of Hollywood’s most accomplished and talented actresses would want to produce and star in a book by a best-selling author with two juicy parts for women. But ooof, despite Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson doing their best, this movie is a dumb, dull, dud.

Let’s start with one of the most misbegotten meet-cutes in movie history. Movies love to have a fun situation bring two characters together for the first time. In “Verity,” Lowen (Johnson) is an author whose book-signing attracted only three people, one who left when she got a phone call. Her agent has set up an important meeting with a publisher and she wants to get there in time. She is almost there when suddenly, she is drenched in blood when a woman is hit by a car. A handsome bystander (Josh Hartnett) takes her into a bathroom to help her clean up and even gives her the literal shirt off his back. Somehow in this brief conversation, he tells her that his eight-year-old daughter was drowned in a lake and she responds, “My mother just died.”

Lowen rushes to the meeting, and can you guess who’s in the room? Yes, in a new shirt, the very same guy. He is Jeremy Crawford, the husband of wildly popular author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), whose books are, in the world of this film, unique because they are from the villain’s point of view. Verity was in a car accident and is unable to get her new book done in time for the deadline. The publisher is looking for an NDA-bound writer “of the same genre” to finish the book.

At first, Lowen says no. But Jeremy tells her that Verity loves Lowen’s book, and soon she is moving into the Crawford’s lavish country house in snowy Vermont, with architectural details along the roof making it look like a buzzsaw, as though it is an omen or something. Lowen meets the Crawford’s young son, Crew (these names!) and Verity’s nurse, Anna (Irina Dvorovenko). Verity is paralyzed and mute, unable to communicate. Lowen has to sort through all of the notes for the book on her own. She finds a hidden thumb drive that contains Verity’s memoir, with a disturbing description of her selfishness and neediness.

It gets more disturbing and Jeremy gets more intriguing and Lowen either thinks she sees Verity standing and looking at her or….

There are too many shots of people holding beverages. Parallels of hands being pricked and mouths being cut/bitten are not as meaningful as they intend. There are some very funny flashbacks as we see Verity at the height of her fame, interviews about her books with the media big three — Gayle King, Alex Cooper, and Sean Evans on “Hot Ones.” It’s turgid and it’s slow. Which is bad because it gives you more time to think about how unimaginative it is and wonder why a child who is supposed to be at least eight years old i is clearly younger, why Lowen always wears black nail polish and when it will be over so you can go home.

Parents should know that this movie has nudity and explicit sexual situations, graphic and disturbing images, very strong language, reference to suicide, murder, drinking, pills, and smoking.

Family discussion: What would this movie be like if it was presented as the villain’s point of view? What made Verity’s books so popular? What will happen next?

If you like this, try: Colleen Hoover’s book and the other movies based on her books, “It Ends With Us” and “Regretting You.”