With plenty of time on my hands as I recovered from my knee replacement surgery, I got to watch a bunch of new and old movies and some excellent documentaries in June. Numbering picks up from previous months and those items marked with an asterisk were ones I had not seen previously. The rating scale goes from a low of 1 to a high of 5 cans of tuna. Enjoy!
58. Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie* (2025, Max) – You may remember the story of the petite blonde married mother of two who went out for a run from her Northern California home and vanished. There was public anguish expressed by her grief-stricken husband and others about her abduction, but then, suddenly, 22 days later, she turns up on a Southern California highway, battered and bruised and back with her family. What happened? She insisted she was captured by two Hispanic women who held her hostage, but the truth was very different. She was accused of staging a hoax and spending time with a former boyfriend, whom she convinced to hurt her and brand her. She spent some time in prison for lying to the FBI, and now – with a new book due out – she has decided to flip the script and accuse her former ex-boyfriend of actually harming her. And she doesn’t spare her former husband, either, accusing him of being controlling and mean to her. Horrors! This is a woman who is not to be trusted or believed. And unless you are immersed in this case, skip this 4-part documentary because it is full of contradictions and claims that cannot be proven. 2 cans.
59. ER* (1994-2009, Hulu) – This entry should occupy far more than a single spot on my list. Over the past few months, I watched all 15 seasons, a total of 330 episodes of this medical drama that aired on NBC. With a stellar original cast of George Clooney, Anthony Edwards and Julianna Margulies, among many others, and with the grittiness of a Chicago Emergency room at a public hospital as the locale, this series was truly captivating. The stories were medical but also character-driven and it made for compelling TV. After about season 8, when the original cast left and new doctors, nurses and others joined, the stories started becoming a little tiresome. But I was committed to finishing what I started. I’m glad I watched it and equally glad I’m finally done. Before there was Grey’s Anatomy (now in its 20th season on ABC) and before House and the Pitt and other excellent medical dramas, ER ruled in this category. 4 cans.
60. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders* (2025, Netflix) – This 3-part documentary recalls the events of 1982, when 7 people were killed in the Chicago area after taking TYLENOL Capsules that were poisoned with cyanide. Since I was working in the Communications Department of Johnson & Johnson at the time, I remember this horrifying incident well. I watched J&J voluntarily recall the product and reimburse the buyers for whatever they said they had spent. The goal was to take the product off the market and avoid additional deaths. This program primarily focuses on James Lewis, a man who was convicted of sending an extortion letter to J&J but who was never convicted of the actual murders. This series floats some possible theories, but there isn’t much new here. 3 cans.
61. Surviving Ohio State* (2025, HBO) – For athletes at Ohio State in the 1980s, especially for members of the championship wrestling team, there was no way to avoid contact with the team doctor and faculty member who watched over the health of the student-athletes. Dr. Richard Strauss ran the department for decades, and the young men in his charge did not know what to do when they were subjected to embarrassing examinations of their genitals during routine physicals, or even if they reported something as mundane as a pain in the shoulder. Strauss took care of countless male athletes, and only the female fencing coach of the men’s team raised a red flag about his practices. He routinely showered with the athletes but did so facing them instead of facing the shower. Most of the athletes felt they would lose their scholarships if they reported the odd behavior of Dr. Strauss, and they didn’t even know how to describe it, though in retrospect, they acknowledge it was sexual abuse – or worse. The show includes numerous interviews with athletes and even with a wrestling official who reported wrong-doing, but nothing was on paper, and the head coach and his assistant, now-Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, were aware of the issues and chose to ignore them. Years later, this became a court case, and only then did the number of victims come out. Strauss died long ago, but let’s hope that society has learned lessons to teach athletes and students when and how to report despicable people who use their positions to abuse them. 4 cans.
62. Jaws (1975, Peacock) – It was been 50 years since that ominous music and a mechanical shark drove us all out of the water. Steven Spielberg’s second movie looked like a sure failure, with the shark breaking down and the cost far exceeding its budget. In the movie, the local police chief (Roy Scheider) has to face down the local sheriff, who doesn’t want the shark attack to destroy the summer tourism season. So the chief teams with a shark expert (Richard Dreyfus) and a ship captain (Robert Shaw) who feel they can defeat the great white shark. We’re gonna need a bigger boat! Just seeing those kids frolicking in the water, their legs hanging down and enticing the killer beast to attack is enough to make you stay away from the beach. Credit John Williams for a score that conveys every bit of terror. 4 cans.
63. Janice Ian: Breaking Silence* (2024, PBS American Masters) – This documentary about singer/songwriter Janice Ian was wonderful. I remember her song “Seventeen” about kids that just don’t fit in, and her iconoclastic “Society’s Child,” but I didn’t realize how young she was (15!) when she started writing and performing. She knew what she wanted to do and set clear boundaries for how she would do it. Her body of work holds up well against the folk singers and writers who were her contemporaries, many of whom are interviewed here. Her reflections on the mores of society, her life as a bi-sexual woman and the quality of her work make this program well worth seeing. 4 cans.
64. Sally Ride* (2025, PBS) – Ironically-named Sally Ride was the first American woman in space when she flew a successful mission for NASA aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. A Stanford graduate with a reputation as a bright engineer, Ride took a chance in applying for the space program when NASA announced they were looking for a few good women. Of course, the people in charge knew little about what women astronauts might need in flight, so they provided the astronauts with a make-up kit and hundreds of tampons. Ride had to face the press and their intrusive questions, queries that the men in the program never had to answer. One question that remained unanswered was her sexual orientation. Once married to a male fellow astronaut but never having had children, Ride kept her private life private, only allowing her long-time female partner to reveal their relationship in her obituary. Exposing their relationship previously might have had a negative impact on her career, so the first the public heard about it was after her death. Sally Ride was a role model for women pursuing science as a career and her foundation encouraged young women to consider the STEM field. Interesting story about a very accomplished woman. 3½ cans.
65. Goodfellas (1990, HBO) – Martin Scorsese’s brilliant film about the mob is full of entertaining tidbits and people with no qualms about going along with the violent traditions of organized crime. Told by the true-life character Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), who eventually ratted out his mob brothers, the story shows how Hill became intoxicated with the gangster lifestyle as a kid and moved up in the ranks as he got older. Of course, Robert DeNiro is in it, along with Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino and others, all of whom are very convincing as the goodfellas. If not for “The Godfather,” this movie would be the best mob movie of all time. 4½ cans.
66. The Founder (Netflix) – Michael Keaton is very convincing as Ray Kroc, the man most people identify as the founder of McDonald’s. To be fair, he didn’t start the enterprise, which was the baby of the McDonald brothers. Ray was a failing milkshake machine salesman who talked a good game but didn’t have much success. When the McDonalds in San Bernadino ordered a bunch of the machines, Kroc went to visit them to understand why, and he realized that the hamburger stand was a model of efficiency. He wanted in, proposed franchising and embarked on a tempestuous relationship with the brothers. It wasn’t until a colleague tipped him off that it would be better if he bought the real estate the stores would build on and lease it back to the franchisees that the big money started to roll in. The McDonald brothers settled with Kroc, who then began to bill himself as the founder. Rather, he was a hustler, interested in expanding the brand and taking chances that the brothers would never have agreed to take. You have to credit Kroc’s vision and ambition for driving the success of the brand and establishing a model franchise, but he did it in such as underhanded way. An American success story, or just the portrait of a man whose business practices hurt the real founders? 3½ cans.
67. In & Out (1997, cable TV) – The always delightful Kevin Kline is high school English teacher Howard Brackett, a man engaged to a woman from the faculty who is outted at the Oscars by his former student (Matt Dillon) after the latter wins Best Actor. The problem is that Howard is not gay, or so he says, despite his penchant for all things Barbra Streisand. Reporter Peter (Tom Selleck) is on hand to report the story, and although Howard denies it, all signs point to the fact that he certainly SEEMS gay. Kline fights it by listening to a tape pushing his virility until he can’t take it and succumbs to the joy of dancing to “I Will Survive.” Don’t overlook the work of Joan Cusak, Howard’s patient fiancée, who, finally facing the truth, utters the line of the movie when she confronts him over the timing of his admission at the altar (“You couldn’t have picked ANY OTHER TIME to tell me???”). From Bob Newhart to Debbie Renolds, this comedy is packed with terrific actors all in on the joke. Utterly charming and with a message to match. 4 cans.
68. Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything* (2025, Hulu) – There was a time that anyone who was anyone did tell newscaster Barbara Walters everything. Famous for her ability to get interviews with the most prominent, important and socially significant people of the day, Barbara’s “gets” included everyone from pols and diplomats like Menachim Begin and Ronald Reagan to Hollywood types known for their reluctance to be interviewed, like Clint Eastwood. And she was able to close the deal to get the infamous Monica Lewinsky in her first post-Clinton interview. Beyond that, Barbara was the first woman to co-host an evening news program, had a long career at “The Today Show,” and then closed her career with the creation of “The View,” a prominent talk show which she led. Like her or hate her, Walters was everywhere for a long time and quite literally paved the way for the success of other women on TV. And it wasn’t by being warm and fuzzy. But give her credit. She was who everyone watched on TV whenever there was a big story to tell. 3½ cans.
69. My Mom Jayne* (2025, HBO) – This moving documentary is a poignant look at the life of actress Jayne Mansfield produced by her actress daughter, Marishka Hargitay, the daughter who hardly knew her. Marishka was just 3 years old when her mother was killed in a car accident that left the toddler and her siblings injured. Her father, body builder Mickey Hargitay, raised the children despite the fact that he and Mansfield had actually divorced. In her day, Jayne Mansfield was like her counterpart, Marilyn Monroe, two breathy blond bombshells better known for their figures than their acting abilities. They were characterized as “dumb blondes’’ when they were neither dumb nor blond. Marishka decides to get to know her mother, visiting the long-secured family storage unit and talking to people who knew her mother back in the day. Some of what she learns is a revelation, with footage of her mother expertly playing the violin and a piano, while other information was kept as family secrets. This is a loving tribute to a woman who was much more than a sex symbol by a daughter who grew up not knowing her. 3½ cans.
70. The Bear, Season 4* (2025, Hulu) – Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his crazy family are back for another go-around, this time with even more at stake as the chef is working on a deadline to have his restaurant turn a profit. Also back is Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), his most trusted chef, along with cousin Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), sister Nat (Abby Elliott) and crazy mom Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis). The crew awaits its fate as they sweat out a review from a food critic and Carmy decides that the perfect menu he tried to achieve last year isn’t making business better. There is so much tension again this year that I can’t understand why this show is considered a comedy-drama. And trying to figure out who is who, who is getting married and who the hell are the Faks anyway (there’s the comic-relief), forced me to resort to finding reviews just so I could understand the plot and players. But the acting here is SO good that I can overlook some of the extra work I was forced to do. There are 10 episodes, all available for streaming on Hulu. And who knows if the show will be back next year, so enjoy it while you can! 4 cans.
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