I was supposed to be watching the Oscar movies this month, but unless they were streaming for free, I skipped most. I tried Emelia Perez but bailed out after I understood the premise, which I did not find entertaining. Here are the movies I did watch, rated on a scale of 0-5 cans of tuna fish and numbered starting with last month.
13. Goodrich * (2024, Netflix) – Poor Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) doesn’t know what hit him. The father of young twins, Andy is an art dealer whose gallery is losing business, causing him long hours spent working and ignoring his family. One night he gets a call from his young wife informing him that she has checked into a rehab center and will not be home for three months and telling him that he is in charge. Having already failed at fatherhood with his adult daughter (Mila Kunis), who is pregnant herself, Andy wants to do better but barely has a clue. Keaton is very good at playing hapless, and his Andy really wants to succeed because he is basically a good guy. And you can’t help but root for him as he tries to save the family and the business. 3 cans.
14. Kobe: The Making of a Legend (2025, CNN) – I couldn’t help but think that this 3-part documentary should have fallen somewhere between the Michael Jordan opus, “The Last Dance,” and the Derek Jeter bio, “The Captain.” This one starts with Kobe’s childhood, where he is a phenom who wants to skip college and play in the NBA for the Lakers. There is extensive coverage of the case when Kobe is sued for sexual assault but virtually nothing about his estrangement from his father, NBA and European pro Joe “Jellybean” Bryant. Then all of a sudden he seems to have taken on the role of “Girl Dad” to his three little daughters, and then boom, he is lost in a tragic helicopter crash that took the lives of Kobe, his daughter GiGi and her teammates. There is a great, tragic story here, but I felt it didn’t get a chance to play out completely. 3 cans.
15. The Gloria Gaynor Story: I Will Survive* and 16. Robin Roberts Presents: Gloria Gaynor (2025, Lifetime) – There are two separate movies here, one a documentary (much preferred) and another a docu-drama where nothing seems real. This is not a review of the movie as much as it is of the life of this immensely talented woman who was called “The Queen of Disco” (Donna Summer might well take issue with that claim). Her “I Will Survive” anthem helped to define the power and assertiveness that Gaynor herself needed to survive in the face of the decline of the disco genre, the unfaithfulness of her husband, countless serious medical issues and the power of an industry which wanted to dictate Gloria’s career. But she did survive, and make sure you stay to see the closing credits, because they made me admire her even more! 4 cans.
17. 9/11: Minute by Minute* (2021, Prime Video) – Just in case anyone could possibly forget the events of Sept. 11, 2000, this engrossing documentary covers it all – from the four separate flights commandeered by terrorists targeting Americans and their most cherished institutions, to the police, firefighters, the people running through the streets of Manhattan and the media covering the events of the day. The most profound part to me was the transmission of the actual voices as the events unfolded in real time, how confused the flight operations staffs were as they tried to track the planes and the passengers and who desperately tried to alert their counterparts about the disaster taking place on their tiny screens. This exceptional work reminds us of the infliction of real terrorism. 4 cans.
18. You Are What You Eat* (2025, Netflix) – After watching this show, you may just lose your appetite. This three-part series focuses on a study done with identical twins who are put on either a Mediterranean diet or an “omnivore” diet where the participants are carefully monitored to identity health issues and improvements they experience on their respective diets. The show also traces the food chain to see not only how food we eat gets to the table but also the negative impact it has on the environment (you won’t believe how much deadly gas pigs emit). That part was hard to watch. I think the series would have been better if the focus had not been spread over several major issues. Just the study of twins merited its own look while I found the reality of our system of catching, caging and growing food to be worthy of its own series. 3 cans.
19. 50,000 First Dates* (2025, Netflix) – Poor Nesh. She has suffered a series of concussions that have resulted in a traumatic brain injury that affects every aspect of her life. There is so much she simply cannot recall. Sometimes she has to retreat to her “brain room,” a quiet space where she can escape from the world and allow her brain to rest. She is fortunate to have a committed partner in JJ, whose love and devotion to his girlfriend brings her strength. This documentary reminds us of the old Drew Barrymore/Adam Sandler movie but it is real. It gave me plenty to think about even as Nesh could not. 3 cans.
20. Scamanda* (2025, ABC) – When my mother would find shows or movies so different from traditional entertainment, her first comment would always be, “Bring back Mickey Rooney!” Well, Mom, we have come a long way since Mickey and Judy looked for a barn to perform in. This mini-series profiles Amanda Riley, social media mom and alleged cancer victim, whose sad story was told amid moving pictures of the young mother undergoing chemotherapy, with IV poles and medications not too prominently displayed. That’s because she did not actually have cancer. Who comes up with an idea to scam well-intentioned and generous people by playing on their sympathy for a young woman who just might succumb to the disease? Amanda handled her illness on social media, constantly blogging and keeping her followers falsely updated. How the scam fell apart and the role of journalists, friends and one-time believers is fascinating. Mom was right. We could use a good, wholesome Mickey Rooney movie! 3½ cans.
21. American Murder: Gabby Petito* (2025, Netflix) – When young adults Gabby Petito and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, bought a white van and outfitted it so they could tour the country, life looked idyllic. They were young and in love, enjoyed blogging about their “Van Life” as they visited national parks and saw the sights of America. But troubling signs began to emerge, as this documentary shows. They were confronted by police after someone saw them fighting on the road, and Gabby tried to take the blame for their confrontation. Not long after that incident, Gabby fell out of contact with her parents, step-parents and friends, while Brian was found at his parents’ home, the white van parked in their driveway. I don’t have to tell you that this situation did not end well (in case you missed the big clue in the title). When things seem either too good to be true or are glossed over, almost inevitably there are unresolved issues that often come to a tragic end, as this one did. 3½ cans and lots of sympathy for the devastated families of Gabby (and not even a sole tear for Brian’s family).
22. No Way Out (1987, Tubi TV) – A young Kevin Costner is Navy Commander Tom Farrell, assigned to the Secretary of Defense, David Brice (Gene Hackman) and charged with investigating the murder of Susan Atwood (Sean Young). The complicating factor is that both Farrell and Brice were engaged in affairs with Susan, and Brice is her actual killer. The walls are closing in on Commander Farrell, as the now-antiquated computer programs spit out information which will lead either to Brice or Tom (dot matrix printers, anyone?). This is a twisty and stylish movie, made better by Hackman, who plays a man of power who is secretly weak and vulnerable. They throw in a Russian spy angle, which I never quite understood but which cannot take away from the main story and the first rate performances of Costner and Hackman. 4 cans.
23. La Dolce Villa* (2025, Netflix) – You would have to be blind to miss the inevitable romance between Scott Foley as Eric, an American father with a daughter living in Italy, and Francesca, the town mayor who is helping Eric handle his daughter’s purchase of a local house. Everything is beautiful and predictable in this lightweight rom-com. Will Eric stay in Italy? Will his daughter get an internship? Will the contractor restore the house? Not exactly burning questions, but with great scenery and yummy-looking food, the movie is a treat for the senses. 2½ cans.
24. Becoming Katharine Graham* (2025, Prime Video) – The legendary publisher of The Washington Post is chronicled in this documentary. She began her interest in journalism when her father purchased the paper and she cut her teeth there as a reporter. It was her husband, Philip Graham, who became the publisher of the Post, and he expanded the operation into TV and radio in addition to merging with other papers. When Philip committed suicide, Kay Graham took on the publisher’s role, rising to notoriety when the Post went head-to-head with President Nixon over Watergate. We know how that ended. This is an interesting biopic that pays homage to a woman who broke glass ceilings and stood up to Nixon and his cronies. 4 cans.
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