Tina's April 2025 Movies & More

April was not a good month for movies, either for quality or quantity. I managed to hit double-digits, but just barely. Numbering picks up from previous months, and all entries are rated on a scale of 1-5 cans of tuna fish, with 5 the top rating. Nothing ranked that high in April. If you want to leave a comment, please include your name at the end. Thanks.
36. King James* (2025, George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick) – George Street Playhouse is a great place to see a show. There’s not a bad seat in the house, the sets are perfect for the action and they are very good at bringing in shows you probably won’t see elsewhere. That said, this production was interesting but I feel would have limited appeal. It is a two-person play that runs 2 hours (with an intermission) and has continuous, fast-paced dialog between the characters that requires the audience to listen carefully. The demands on the actors are intense. The show is about Shaun and Matt, two men who meet and bond over their love for basketball player LeBron James, who, as the show starts, is beginning his rookie year with their local Cleveland Cavaliers, a perennially losing NBA team. They share their opinions about LeBron – especially when he announced he would be taking “his talents to Miami” and abandoning Cleveland. And they also share their lives, with Shaun becoming close to Matt’s family and pursuing a career in television writing. When Shaun announces his plans to study in New York and later to venture to Hollywood, Matt feels as abandoned as he did when LeBron left Cleveland. Their friendship suffers a few hits, but they have too much history to give it up. 3 cans.
37. American Masters – LIZA (2025, PBS) – Liza Minelli was born into show business. The daughter of legendary star Judy Garland and her director husband, Vincent Minnelli, Liza’s path to becoming an entertainer was inevitable. Her role in Cabaret won her an Oscar and opened the doors to other special projects, including her acclaimed special, “Liza with a Z.” As an actress, singer, dancer and a dynamic performer in all media, Liza shined brightly, but her life was never easy. She is definitely NOT like other performers, and she always seems to leave all of her energy on that stage. This is a fair and insightful look at a show biz life. 3½ cans.
38. The Pitt* (2025, Max) – Medical dramas have had a long life on TV, but this one is a little different. Each episode covers an hour in the Emergency Department at a hospital in Pittsburgh, taking viewers along during an intense shift by the medical staff. The star of the ED and the show is the former Dr. John Carter of “ER” fame, Noah Wylie, here playing grizzled doc Michael “Robby” Rabinovich. Robby is the seasoned vet of the department, while several newbies are on board on their first day. The acting is first rate, thought I had some trouble distinguishing among the female doctors since many were brunettes and looked similar to me. The other thing that made this show challenging to me is that earlier this year I started watching the entire run of “ER” (I’m on season 13 of 15; 330 episodes in all), and Noah Wylie’s young Dr. John Carter was one of my favorite characters. The juxtaposition of Wylie playing an earnest young doctor in “ER” vs the doctor who has seen it all in “The Pitt” required an adjustment on my part. Both shows are excellent, and the good news is that “The Pitt” has already been granted a second season. 4 cans.
39. The Life List* (2025, Netflix) – Think back to when you were young and had a long list of things you wanted to accomplish in life. In this somewhat predictable romantic comedy, Alex has just that list, and she has a good reason for setting out to check every item off of it. Luckily for her, things fall into place quite easily, and a few items on that list especially work out in her favor. 3 cans.
40. Ghostlight* (2024, Hulu) – This is a sad and sobering film about a married father who is grieving a loss (viewers learn more about that as the story unfolds) and unable to express his sadness and frustration. Dan (Keith Kupferer) works in construction and is harassed about the noise he makes by a little woman who lives in the area where he is working. She somehow gets him to observe the adult community theater group she is in as they prepare for a performance of “Romeo and Juliet” (with characters much older than in the original Shakesperean play). Poor Dan has a wife who is also mourning the loss and a feisty daughter who is constantly in trouble, also grieving and acting out. It doesn’t appear that anything will bring relief and comfort to this sad family, but sometimes when you least expect it, something of meaning and joy comes along. 3½ cans.
41. A Real Pain* (2024, Hulu) – The title of this film conveys two separate truths. When cousins Dave (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Oscar-winning Kieran Culkin) decide to do a Jewish Heritage tour in Poland to honor their late grandmother, Dave quickly realizes that Benji is a quixotic pain the butt, behaving inappropriately by being loud and lecturing the other travelers. The other pain is from visiting the various Polish locales where their grandmother lived and somehow managed to survive the Holocaust. As the group tours Poland, the reality of what happened to the Jews living there prior to and during WWII is overwhelming. Both leads handle their parts with enough skill to keep me watching, though I was tempted to bail when Benji’s antics really started to annoy me. 3½ cans.
42. My Penguin Friend* (2024, Hulu) – I don’t usually go for movies where the main characters are animals, but this one caught my eye when I saw a preview in the movies months ago. Joao is a fisherman living in Brazil. He is grieving a loss from long ago, living a quiet life with his wife and just barely scraping by financially and emotionally. But one day he rescues an oil-covered penguin who has somehow gotten separated from his flock. Joao cleans him up and feeds him, and the little guy is so cute and clever that it is hard on Joao when he knows it is time to release him back in the ocean to find the penguins he left behind. Joa’s granddaughter names the lucky penguin Dindim. Somehow, Dindim manages to return to Joao, but eventually a group of biologists tag him and scoop him up for a study of marine life. Without giving away the plot – which is based on a true story – this is NOT the last we will see of Dindim. Every now and then a touching movie comes along and warms the heart. This one surely did. 4 cans.
43. Con Mum* (2025, Netflix) – For Graham, a chef in London, never knowing his biological mother was something he regretted. Then, out of the blue, she tracked him down and contacted him, asking to get together. Skeptical, he and his partner asked Dionne a series of questions that only his mother would know, such as, “What is my middle name?” She knew he didn’t have one. So they got together and she filled him in on her incredible life story and her extraordinary wealth. She was dying, she explained, so she wanted to establish a relationship with Graham before it was too late. If something seems too good to be true, it generally is not to be believed. But poor Graham believed her stories and when her wealth was “tied up,” he took care of the bills for her extravagant lifestyle. You know what’s coming, but I couldn’t turn away. People who con others have the ability to lie so creatively and to entice others into supporting them. This Netflix documentary was just one part, but the story unfolded completely. If you like these kinds of stories, this is one that you probably haven’t seen before. 4 cans.
44. Heart of Champions* (2021, Netflix) – This cliché-driven sports movie telegraphs every move. Will the tough coach of the rowing team (Michael Shannon) whip them into shape so they can beat Harvard? When will the inevitable tragedy take place? And could you possibly end this movie without the team triumph? I can’t recommend this one, despite competent performances and a bit of drama. 2 cans.
45. G20* (2025, Prime Video) – I really can imagine Viola Davis as the President of the United States. She is a tough, intelligent woman with charisma. But in this horror movie – oops, I mean HORRIBLE movie – the filmmakers are determined to show her as a kickass woman who can physically fight off the terrorists at the G20 Summit of world leaders. To me, the most preposterous scene took place in an elevator – not a freight elevator – with guns drawn and fisticuffs everywhere. Can the President, a military veteran, use her background and smarts to outwit and overcome the killers? Her family is along for the ride, and her daughter somehow manages to find the right frequency to communicate with Prez Mom throughout the ordeal. I’m a big Viola Davis fan, but she’s not winning any Oscars, Tonys, Emmys or Grammys here. 1 can, mostly for Davis’ ability to enter combat in a long red dress.
46. Love Again* (2023, Hulu) – I was working those subscriptions today and found this rom-but-not-so-much-com on Hulu. Mia (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) suffers a horrible loss when the man she is about to become engaged to is killed by a drunk driver as she looks on. Two years later, she is still wearing his old shirts and sending romantic texts to his old phone, which makes her feel the relationship is still alive. But the number now belongs to music critic Rob (Sam Heughan), who cannot find love of his own. He eagerly reads Mia’s texts and eventually meets her (come on, you knew this was coming). But he doesn’t know how to tell her that he has read her deepest thoughts through her inadvertent texts. This is a sweet and gentle movie, with a cast that is easy on the eyes and a good way to kill some time. And Celine Dion is a key plot point and graces the movie with her fabulous voice. 3 cans.