The dirty dozen is presented here for your viewing pleasure. All ratings are on a scale of 1-5 cans of tuna and those entries marked by an asterisk are things I had not seen previously. Numbering picks up from previous months.
44. Out of Africa (1985, Cable TV) – Magnificent Meryl Streep and gorgeous Robert Redford co-star in this beautiful-looking Sydney Pollack movie about a Danish woman trying to create a new life and a coffee plantation in Kenya while living with her part-time husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer). But she is really in love with dashing Denys Finch-Hatton (Redford), who is not a man to be tied down. Everything in this movie is magnificent, from the vistas of Kenya to the sumptuous music, and especially to Redford. In a scene where he washes Meryl’s hair, you can’t help but swoon. I hadn’t seen this one in many years and thoroughly enjoyed it again. 4 cans.
45. An Unmarried Woman (1978, Cable TV) – The late Jill Clayburgh is Erica, a relatively happy housewife who works at an art gallery and still loves her husband (Michael Murphy) after many years of marriage. And then, out of the blue, he breaks down and tells her he has been having an affair and doesn’t love her anymore. She orders him out of the house and tries, with the help of her group of girlfriends and a therapist, to adjust to the fact that she is an unmarried woman who is starting over. Excellent acting and views of New York in the 1970s. 3½ cans.
46. The Devil Wears Prada 2* (2026, Manville Cinema) – Gird your loins, folks, because Miranda Priestly, the Emilys and ever-faithful Nigel are all back in this sequel to the 2006 movie. Meryl Streep’s Miranda is still the doyenne of fashion and still running “Runway,” a magazine that is now mostly an online publication. Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway) has spent 20 years in “real” journalism after her stint on the magazine. And Emily (Emily Blunt) has moved to a senior executive position at Dior, which is a sponsor of Runway. Andy is summoned back to the magazine to handle damage control for a major PR issue, so her role is very different from being a second assistant to the impervious and demanding Miranda. Will the owners dump the publication, or will they move Miranda up to be the creative head of the conglomerate that owns it? This was a satisfying sequel to the original, and I can’t believe 20 years have flown by since we first watched them run around in their Jimmy Cho shoes! 3½ cans.
47. Norma Rae (1979, Cable TV) – Sally Field won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as the gritty Norma Rae in this movie about an attempt to establish a union in a textile mill in an impoverished Southern town. Generations of employees have worked in the sooty, dusty plant, getting sick and dying. When a union rep (Ron Leibman) comes to town to organize the employees, he has to sell the idea of a union to them. He doesn’t have a lot of credibility with the townfolks, who mistrust the New Yorker in him. But Norma Rae gets it and starts working in her spare time to convince her friends and co-workers at the plant to vote for the union. When she stands on that table holding her hand-drawn “UNION” sign, I still get the chills. 4 cans.
48. Three Days of the Condor (1975, Cable TV) – Robert Redford is Joe Turner, a low-level CIA researcher who goes out to pick up lunch one day and returns to his office to find his entire unit murdered. Why? And is he next? He calls in the incident to his CIA boss (whom he has never met), but he has to communicate with people he doesn’t know and trust with his own safety. He randomly kidnaps a woman (Faye Dunaway) to force her to help him, and soon they are both in danger. This is a tense and intriguing plot, as Turner tries to figure out why his colleagues were killed and by whom. An oldie but a goodie. 3½ cans.
49. Remarkably Bright Creatures* (2026, Netflix) – This heartwarming movie stars Sally Field as Tova, a lonely widow who works as an aquarium cleaner. She has developed a friendship of sorts with Maurice, an octopus (voiced by Alfred Molina) who likes to escape from this tank. She shares her plight with Maurice, being torn between staying in the house she has owned for decades or moving to an assisted living facility. The house houses memories of her loss of her son, and she doesn’t understand what happened to cause his death. Then Cameron (Lewis Pullman) shows up, searching for his biological father, and gets hired at the aquarium to help the injured Tova. They butt heads – she sees him as doing a half-assed job and insists he do things right. The octopus pulls them together even as he faces his own impending demise. 3½ cans.
50. Cash McCall* (1960, Prime Video) – If you ever wondered what the 60s were like in corporate America, watch this movie. Men are in charge, of course, decked out in their fine business suits and ties, with women only there to be accessories. You can’t forget the name of this movie, because the main character, Cash McCall, who is played by a debonair-looking James Garner, has his name mentioned practically every minute. He is a wheeler-dealer, buying and selling businesses while trying to impress Lory Austen (Natalie Wood), the daughter of a business associate/friend/foe. She wears period-appropriate hats and pointy bras and has met him socially, before he knew her lineage (or did he?). This is NOT a good movie and I won’t urge you to run out and rent it, but sometimes you go into this kind of movie knowing what it is and you enjoy it anyway. Besides, who can resist the charms of James Garner? 3 cans.
51. FDR* (2026, PBS - Netflix) – This 3-part documentary is a comprehensive look at the life and times of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Born into wealth and privilege and a cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt, FDR seemed destined to pursue politics, and he followed in the elder Roosevelt’s footsteps in the positions he held. FDR married distant cousin Eleanor, who bore him six children before he was stricken
with infantile paralysis and lost his ability to walk (which apparently did not diminish his taste for other women, as Eleanor found out). His disability
was largely shielded from the public and he made appearances standing
and walking with crutches, a cane or with his son by his side to bear
his weight. He was elected President during the Great Depression in 1932 and had to lead the nation into sustainable recovery. The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese drew the US into World War II. FDR’s dealings with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill are covered here with plenty of actual footage as well as some dramatizations where actors play the characters. There is nothing new here, but I thought the documentary put to good use appearances by historians and authors like Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss and others we are accustomed to seeing on PBS. 3½ cans.
52. Hacks, Season 5* (2026, HBO Max) – This wonderful show comes to an end as veteran comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) move to a solid and beautiful friendship after plenty of sparring and mistreating each other for the past 5 years. Deborah, despite being banned from performing, has just pulled off a coup against her former employer and is enjoying the aftermath of an outdoor showstopper of a concert, her way of sticking it to the man. Young writer Ava, who has served as Deborah’s writing partner/muse/opponent/ since the series began, is now her confidant and someone Debroah has grown to trust and love. I don’t want to reveal the plot, so I will just say thank you to the creative team and actors, led by the formidable Jean Smart, for creating indelible characters. And I am eager to see where Hannah takes this experience in her next role. It has been a blast. 4½ cans.
53. Miss You, Love You* (2026, HBO) – This movie that should have been a play stars Allison Janey as Diane, an embittered woman planning a funeral for her second husband. She could trip over the chip on her shoulder that she carries for her son, who rarely keeps in touch and doesn’t seem likely to attend the funeral. Instead, he sends his assistant, Jamie (Andrew Rannels), to help his mother with the preparations. Although Jamie tries hard to be helpful, Diane knows it is her son who should be here and not some efficient assistant, but mother-son have been estranged since he was 9 (as you find out). This dance of words and accusations between the grieving widow with a sharp tongue and the assistant who is in love with his gay boss peel back the layers of the story. The dialog is delivered like shotgun blasts between the mother who feels she has tried her best and the substitute “son.” There are a few other characters in the show, mostly for comic relief (including my beloved Bonnie Hunt), but Diane resents them, too. The mood is dark, and so are the sets, despite the New Mexico locale. But even though I found this movie a little hard to take (lots of arguing), I love Allison Janney in any role, and Andrew Rannells holds his own against a tough cookie. 3½ cans.
54. Rafa* (2026, Netflix) – If you have watched any tennis in the past 25 years, you probably saw Rafael Nadal’s rise to prominence. This 4-part series examines his career, the challenges he had to overcome – physical and mental – to perform at the top of his game for decades. The one stat that stands out for me is Nadal’s record at the French Open, where he captured the title 14 times! Nadal was in it to win it, fighting off foot injuries and pressure that he mostly put on himself. Just when you think someone has a limit to how well they can perform, along comes Rafa to reach a new level. He is retired now, having spent time as the number 1 player in the world many times in his 3-decade-ling playing career. I miss his tenacity on the court. 3½ cans.
55. Marty, Life Is Short* (2026, Netflix) – Comic actor Martin Short possesses a rare gift – JOY. Whether he is creating it with his comic antics and performances on TV, stage or movies, or whether he is experiencing it with family and friends, this man emanates joy and happiness, despite a life filled with tragedies. This documentary ode to joy is filled with his home videos of his beloved family and famous friends, from Tom Hanks to Steven Spielberg and many more. Beware of excessive smiling. 3 cans.
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