Another group of diverse movies marks May. The rating scale is 1-5 cans of tuna fish, with being the highest. Numbering picks up from previous months and shows marked with an asterisk are ones I had not seen previously.
47. The Four Seasons* (2025, Netflix) – This 8-part series is derived from the 1981 comedy movie by Alan Alda, with a cast this time of Tina Fey, Will Forte, Steve Carell and Colman Domingo in the roles of 3 couples who are best friends and spend vacations together, one in each season. The friends all go through things that friends and couples experience in the course of relationships, some clever and amusing and others sad and potentially fatal to the group dynamic. This show reminds us that relationships are not easy and should not be taken for granted, whether they are between friends, lovers, spouses, exes, etc. 3 cans.
48. The Four Seasons (1981, Netflix) – This is where it all began, with a clever comedy written, directed by and starring Alan Alda. Alda is well matched by screen wife Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Jack Weston, Len Cariou, Sandy Dennis and Beth Armstrong. The plot is essentially the same as the new series, but I preferred the original movie, which I think had better characters and actors. The scenery here and the Vivaldi music bring class and dignity to the movie. 4 cans.
49. Secrets of the Penguins* (2025) – If you loved “The March of the Penguins,” you will enjoy this further exploration into their world. The first part of three is very similar to “March,” showing how the penguins mate, deliver babies and then the mothers go off to gather food while the fathers are given the daunting task of keeping their progeny alive through extreme conditions. The other parts of the series show penguins in the Galapagos, who do not have to contend with the bracing cold and lack of food; they attack pelicans, whose mouths are chock full of fish. I don’t often watch movies about the joys of nature, but this series was well worth my time. 3½ cans.
50. Nonnas* (2025, Netflix) – Who wouldn’t love a movie about Italian grandmas who cook? Here, Vince Vaughn plays a man trying to open an old-fashioned restaurant on Staten Island where the kitchen is staffed by some of the neighborhood women who have cooked for their families for years. There are the usual complications of opening any business, plus trying to get food critics and people outside of family and friends to sample the earthy and delicious food prepared by the “nonnas.” Vaughn is accompanied here by Brenda Vaccaro, Talia Shire, Susan Sarandon and Lorraine Bracco, who don’t always get along but whose friction is there to amuse us. This movie is based on a true story. See it, but don’t watch it hungry or you’ll really want to eat! 3½ cans.
51. The Quilters* (2025, Netflix) – This short (34-minute) documentary takes viewers behind the bars of an all-male penitentiary where certain inmates are allowed to participate in a program to make quilts for autistic children. Any infractions could kick them out of the program and back into the general population. The men here take their mission seriously, sketching and sewing and displaying their beautiful work. I loved the movie, but I wanted more: How did the program start? Did any of these men know how to sew? How many people are in the program and how did they get started? Regardless of the lack of information, this was an inspiring, charming little movie that reminds us that most people are not entirely good or bad. 4 cans.
52. Fountain of Youth* (2025, Apple TV) – I know it is me. I just cannot suspend my sense of reality and enjoy an adventure-caper-type movie without thinking the plot is absurd and the hero would never survive. People pop up in just the places they need to be to either save or attack the main characters, the amount of expertise needed to solve whatever the plot dictates is unreasonable, etc. That said, this action movie starring John Krasinski and Natalie Portman as a brother and sister is a slick flick that many people will likely rate higher than me. But I can’t go higher than 3 cans.
53. The Love Punch* (2013, Prime Video) – I have to use the same standard here as in the above movie. Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan are exes who team up to steal a diamond that they plan to use to recoup their financial holdings after he loses his job in a corporate takeover that costs all of his fellow employees their life savings. This comedy-romance is very appealing because of the chemistry between the charming leads, but the absurdity of the plot was hard to take for me. 3 cans.
54. Your Friends & Neighbors* (2025, Apple TV) – Except for being divorced from his first wife, Andy Cooper (Jon Hamm) is living the good life is suburban New York. She has their former house and the kids, but everyone is friendly with the wife’s lover, with whom she cheated while married to Coop. Then, suddenly, Coop loses his high-paid hedge-fund job after having an affair with a co-worker, he cannot work elsewhere because of his contract, and he decides to take things into his own hands by robbing his wealthy friends and neighbors of a few baubles and other things they won’t even know are missing before he can fence them. And just when his life of crime seems to be paying off, he is accused of murder. Coop is always on the verge of being caught but for much of the mini-series, he escapes. Until he can’t. A very sharp, smart and clever comedy with an outstanding performance by Jon Hamm, this is a great take on how rich people live. I will definitely watch Season 2 if there is one. 4 cans.
55. Hacks, Season 4* (2025, Max) – Veteran comedienne Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) has finally reached her dream of hosting her own night-night talk show, although she got there through some nefarious means. And so did her head writer, Ava (Hannah Einbeinder), who cons her way into the job by holding some key information over Deborah’s head. The first few episodes of this season were too dramatic and nasty, but around halfway through, things resolve themselves neatly and the two women really start to bond. Still, succeeding in late night TV isn’t a sure thing, even when you are on top. The twists and unexpected outcomes that mark the end of the season will be fun to follow as Hacks continues to Season 5. 4 cans.
56. And Then She Found Me* (2007, Prime Video) – Helen Hunt plays April, a 39-year- old woman newly married to Ben (Matthew Broderick), a fellow teacher, who desperately wants to have a baby. Ben, however, decides he doesn’t want to be married after all. And just as her adoptive mother passes away, suddenly her birth mother (Bette Midler) comes barging into her life, trying to make up for the years she has lost with her daughter. And, if life isn’t complicated enough, April falls for Frank (Colin Firth), father of one of her students, whose wife dumped him. One thing that never changes is April’s determination to have a baby. But will she find the right man, fix her relationship with her mother and her husband or end up with the new man? Stay tuned. 3½ cans.
57. The Last Showgirl* (2024, Hulu) – Pamela Anderson puts on quite a show in his look at Shelly, a woman who has spent decades performing in a fading Vegas review that is about to close. She is a showgirl, a dying breed in Las Vegas, and she considers her role in the “Razzle Dazzle” show to be legitimate show business. Anderson is terrific in the part of the beauty whose esteem depends on putting on the costumes and layers of make-up to portray the star of the dwindling troupe. She is the leader of the show and the pack of women who perform it. She is also the estranged mother of Hannah (Bille Lourd), whom she gave up in order to let the young woman lead a more normal life with stepparents. Jamie Lee Curtis gives the film more pathos with her portrayal of a former showgirl who now is a cocktail waitress who still longs for her performing days. This is a well-crafted movie by Gia Coppola that makes you feel sadness and empathy for these women who cannot face an era that is ending. 4 cans.
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