The movies and programs included here are rated on a scale of 1-5 cans of tuna fish, with 5 being the top rating. The asterisks indicate programs I had not seen previously. Numbering picks up from previous months.
39. Pretty Baby – Brooke Shields* (2023, Hulu) – I can’t think of anyone who has spent her entire life in the public eye and been more exploited than Brooke Shields. This two-part documentary traces her career from being a baby model to being a pre-pubescent film star in movies like “Pretty Baby,” where she played a prostitute, and through today. She was delivering lines and performances that she wasn’t old enough to understand, and her manager/mother took full advantage of every opportunity to put her young breadwinner to work. She may be best remembered for her TV and print ads for Calving Klein Jeans, where the designer had her pose provocatively, claiming that “nothing comes between me and my Calvins.” The good news here is that despite questionable choices for her career by her mother, today Brooke comes across as pretty normal, a wife and mother who understands what happened to her and has survived it all. Any shame here belongs to her now deceased mother, who used beautiful Brooke as a meal ticket for far too long. 3½ cans.
40. Crazy Heart (2010, HBO) – We have seen characters like Bad Blake before. Bad is a broken-down country singer who scrapes by playing bowling alleys and bars, drinking and smoking too much and with no one special in his life. But Jeff Bridges delivers an Oscar-winning performance here, bringing dimension to the character and performing country tunes like a true pro. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a young writer who interviews him and falls for his charm. 3½ cans.
41. Air* (2023, Manville Cinema) – There’s no business like shoe business. This is the story about the deal that changed everything. As North Carolina phenom basketball player Michael Jordan prepares to turn pro, all the shoe companies are after him. Nike’s basketball division isn’t as big or rich as Converse or Adidas. But Nike has Sonny Vaccarro (Matt Damon), a basketball junkie who is convinced that Jordan is something special and who is ready to do anything he can to convince Jordan to sign. But first he has to work on the formidable Deloris Jordan (Viola Davis), Michael’s mother (who carries much more influence than his obnoxious agent). Making a movie about a business deal is risky, but Nike took a risk in signing Jordan in real life and the movie actually is suspenseful (even though that we all know what happened). In the first year, the branded Air Jordan shoes brought in $162 million in sales, an unprecedented success. Ben Affleck, who directed, plays arrogant Nike founder Phil Knight, and Jason Bateman is the Nike head of marketing. 3½ hoops.
42. A Wing & A Prayer* (2023, Prime Video) – Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham star in the story of a man and his family flying home from the funeral of his brother when the pilot of their private plane suddenly dies. The father is forced to try to fly the plane, with lots of help from air traffic control and an aircraft expert (Jesse Metcalf). This is a faith-based drama based on an actual event, but there are so many cliches that make the concept trite. Quaid has one expression through most of the flight: Terror. Although I didn’t know the story was real, I somehow knew what the ending would be. You can miss this flight. 1 can.
43. Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II* (2010, Prime Video) – Like “Hidden Figures,” this documentary reveals the role women had in using their mathematical abilities as human computers to support the military effort in World War II. There were no electronic computers; these women did the job in calculating ballistics for bombing Europe. They were human computers – people who computed. While the men were off to the front lines, women math majors were hired for their expertise and trained for the job. Later, the same women were used as the first programmers of the government’s ENIAC computers. They were not Rosie the Riveter but rather a part of a top-secret engineering corps whose work was critical to the war effort. This is why we need to study ALL of history, so we understand the contributions of people in every field, as well as the consequences of those people doing evil. 3½ cans.
44. The Captive* (2014, HBO Max) – Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) is the father of a nearly 10-year-old daughter, Cassandra, a figure skater whom he dutifully takes to practice at a local rink. On the way home, Matthew calls his wife, Tina (Mireille Enos), to say they are stopping off to pick up a pie at a local diner. He goes in to get the pie and comes out to find that his daughter has disappeared from the back of his truck. That is the beginning of a search that takes years, with the police (Rosario Dawson and Scott Speedman) sometimes on the trail of the kidnapper and sometimes looking accusingly at Matthew himself. Is Cass still alive? Who could have taken her and why? This is a suspenseful drama, though a bit confusing at times, that held my interest. Check it out for yourself. 3½ cans.
45. The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) – I enjoyed watching this old favorite recently. Cousins Charlie (Mickey Rourke) and Paulie (Eric Roberts) aren’t exactly criminals, but neither are they upstanding citizens. Paulie is the schemer with no qualms about making a big score as long as it doesn’t really hurt anyone. “It’s only money,” he pleads to Charlie. Charlie is the dreamer who looks forward to scraping together enough money to run his own restaurant, but who can’t keep up with the demands of his ex-wife and the bills for his expensive suits and shoes. Paulie is certain they can pull off a heist that will benefit them both, but the twitchy would-be mini-mobster can’t get out of his own way. This movie depicts the streets of New York, the cops, the crooks and the schemers with great verve. The Sinatra song “Summer Wind” only enhances it all. 4 cans.
46. Mafia Mamma* (2023, Manville Cinema) – Toni Colette is a harried, married mother of a college bound son who catches her husband cheating on her, so she takes off for Italy, where she has been summoned to settle the affairs of her recently deceased grandfather. She thinks she has inherited a winery. Before you know it, she’s sampling delicious gelato and running a Mafia family there in the midst of a mob war. She has bodyguards, enemies who shoot, dismember and destroy, and she starts seeing a handsome man whom she met at the airport. This is an over-the-top comedy caper, with bullets flying and some pretty nasty mayhem and gruesome deaths (I had to cover my eyes for one scene, even as I wondered how this innocent suburban mom could become so vicious so fast). This is not the typical comedy and sometimes it seemed too campy and ridiculous, but it was different and moderately entertaining. 3 cans
47. Judy Blume Forever* (2023, Prime Video) – I have never read a book by well-known young adult and children’s author Judy Blume. Her period of popularity didn’t coincide with my adolescence. Until I watched this documentary, I wasn’t aware how prolific an author she was and that she switched from books for growing children and young adults to adult fiction. Blume tackled the realities of life that kids face – questions about their personal development, bullying, sex and everything in between. In addition to writing books, Judy Blume also wrote letters, thoughtfully answering many of her ardent young fans who trusted her enough to ask the kinds of questions they should have asked their parents but felt uneasy discussing personal topics. I am looking forward to seeing the movie based on one of Blume’s most popular books, “Are You There, God, It’s Me, Margaret.” 3½ cans.
48. The Diplomat* (2023, Netflix) – Keri Russell is the US Ambassador to England in this 8-part Netflix series that encompasses international diplomacy, intrigue, ambition and a failing marriage. Russell’s Kate is a career diplomat unexpectedly assigned to England at a critical time, just after a British ship has been attacked. She knows her stuff and has plenty of connections, but this position is just a temporary stop on her path to a higher post that is not one she is seeking. Her career diplomat husband comes along for the ride as kind of a “buy one, get one free” equal who is unassigned at the moment. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get all of the diplomatic nuances and honestly, I didn’t want to work that hard to understand it all. Russell is really good in this part, with the right level of competence, confidence and disdain while staying “approachable.” Her husband, played by Rufus Sewell, is an interesting operative and about to get the marital boot. The series is clearly bound for season 2 since the loose ends were not wrapped up by the end of episode 8. 3½ cans.
49. Champions* (2023, Peacock) – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Good-hearted but stern coach takes over rag-tag basketball team (substitute any sport) and leads them to victory. Here, Woody Harrelson is an NBA minor league assistant coach who drinks too much and who, after an arrest, is forced to choose between going to jail or spending 90 days coaching a team of young people with intellectual disabilities. There are special challenges for him with this group but they are enthusiastic and receptive (for the most part). The ultimate goal is for the team to win the Special Olympics and for the coach to get back to the NBA. Will they make it? Will the bond they build be enough to get him to forsake a better job? There are a lot of genre cliches in this movie but the aspect of featuring a cast comprised of actors with intellectual disabilities makes it more palatable. 3 cans.
50. King of Collectibles* (2023, Netflix) – If you are looking for a game-worn Jackie Robinson jersey and you have a couple of million dollars available, Ken Goldin and his crew would be happy to help you. Goldin runs a NJ company that hunts down valuable items from collectors willing to part with them and is available to collectors ready to put their treasures up for auction with Goldin. This 6-part documentary shows the thrill of uncovering a treasure trove of Olympic jerseys signed by all of the Dream team that Karl Malone owns. But it is not all sports collectibles. The series includes Beanie Babies, Gucci clothing and bags and more. A trip to the attic in one man’s house revealed complete baseball card sets in their original boxes going back for decades. So, before you toss that old Apple computer, you may want to think twice. 3½ cans.
51. Longest Third Date* (2023, Netflix) – This documentary movie brings a different perspective to the pandemic that resulted in a worldwide lockdown beginning in March 2020. But for Matt Robertson and Khani Le, it started as just their third date. After meeting online and going out twice, the couple decided on a whim to fly to Costa Rica for their third date in March 2020. Matt, an obsessed video blogger, recorded everything and his footage is used extensively to show their adventures and challenges as the world around them shuts down. They realized things were becoming a problem when their flights home were cancelled and their hotel shut down after only a few days. While moving from one AirBNB to another, they got to know each other very well and still managed to have fun despite the uncertainty of their plight. When would they finally be able to leave their island paradise and go home? No spoilers here – just watch the movie to see how things turned out. 3½ cans.
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