Monday, September 8, 2025

Movies for October 2025: Freud's Last Session and A Million Miles Away

      Dean Hiser will host our October 8, 2025, noon meeting at his home with a zoom option, and we will discuss:

Freud's Last Session (2023)


     Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud invites professor C.S. Lewis to debate the existence of God, Freud's unique relationship with his daughter, and Lewis' unconventional relationship with his best friend's mother. 
     
     Director: Matt Brown
     Writers: Mark St. Germain, Matt Brown and Armand M. Nicholi Jr.
      Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode and Liv Lisa Fries

A Million Miles Away (2023)

     A biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut. A tale of perseverance, community and sacrifice to accomplish a seemingly impossible dream. 

      Director: Alejandra Marquez Abella
      Writers: Bettina Gilois, Hernan Jimenez and Alejandra Marquez Abella
      Stars:  Michael Pena, Rosa Salazar and Julio Cesar Cedillo


How to find streaming services for movies:


Scores for September 2025 movies:

The Naked Gun (2025) 4.5 (6 votes)
Last Breath (2025) 7.8 (8 votes)

Films of Merit

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Movies for September 2025: The Naked Gun and Last Breath

      Bill Graves will host our Sept. 3 noon meeting at his house with a Zoom option. The movies are: The Naked Gun and Last Breath.

The Naked Gun (2025)

     Only one man has the particular set of skills to lead Police Squad and save the world.

     Director: Akiva Schaffer
     Writers: Dan Gregor, Doug Mand and Akiva Schaffer
     Stars:  Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson and Paul Walter Hauser

Last Breath (2025)

     A true story that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface.

     Director: Alex Parkinson
     Writers: Mitchell LaFortune, Alex Parkinson and David Brooks
     Stars: Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole

How to find streaming services for movies:


Scores for August 2025 movies:

The Big Red One (1980) 6.3 (8 votes)

Films of Merit



Saturday, July 19, 2025

Movies for August 2025: D-Day Plus 20 Years -- Eisenhower Returns to Normandy and The Big Red One

      Hugh Heinsohn will host our Aug. 6 noon meeting on Zoom. We will gather at Carl Carlson's house  to be together as Hugh hosts on Zoom. The movies are: D-Day Plus 20 Years - Eisenhower Returns to Normandy and The Big Red One.

D-Day Plus 20 Years - Eisenhower Returns to Normandy (1964)

     Former President Eisenhower goes through the decisions and actions of D-Day with Walter Cronkite.    
     Stars: Walter Cronkite and Dwight D. Eisenhower


The Big Red One  (1980)

       A hardened sergeant and the four core members of his infantry unit try to survive World War II as they move from battle to battle throughout Europe.

      Director: Samuel Fuller
      Writer: Samuel Fuller
      Stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine


How to find streaming services for movies:



Scores for July 2025 movies:



Films of Merit





Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Movies for July 2025: Operation Odessa and The Zone of Interest

      Carl Carlson will host our July 9, 2025, meeting at noon at his home with a Zoom option, and the movies we will discuss are: 

Operation Odessa (2018)

     In the early 1990s, three friends set out to hustle the Russian mob, the Cali cartel and the DEA for the score of a lifetime.

     Director: Tiller Russell
     Stars: Ludwig Fainberg, Juan Almeida and Nelson Yester


The Zone of Interest (2023)

     Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss and his wife, Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden beside the concentration camp.

     Director: Jonathan Glazer
     Writers: Jonathan Glazer and Martin Amis
     Stars: Christian Friedel, Sandra Huller and Johann Karthaus


How to find streaming services for movies:



Scores for June 2025 movies:

Capernaum (2018) 8.9 (7 votes)
September 5 (2024) 8 (7 votes)

Films of Merit



     



     

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Movies for June 2025: Capernaum and September 5

      Don Nugent will host our meeting at his home with a Zoom option at noon on June 11. We will discuss:

Capernaum  (2018)

     While serving a five-year sentence for a violent crime, a 12-year-old boy sues his parents for neglect.

     Director: Nadine Labaki
     Writers:  Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily and Michelle Keserwany
     Stars: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw and Boluwatife Treasure Bankole

September 5  (2024)

     During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, an American sports broadcasting team must adapt to live coverage of the Israeli athletes being held hostage by a terrorist group.

     Director: Tim Fehlbaum
     Writers: Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David
     Stars: Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Ben Chaplin


How to find streaming services for movies:



Scores for May 2025 movies:

Fitzcarraldo (1982) 7.8 (8 votes)

Films of Merit

Monday, April 14, 2025

Movies for May 2025: Bad Lieutenant and Fitzcarraldo

      John Cleary will host our meeting at his home with a Zoom option at noon on May 7. We will discuss:


Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)

      Terence McDonagh is a drug-and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants. 

     Director: Werner Herzog
     Writers: William M. Finkelstein
      Stars: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes and Russell M. Haeuser

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

     The story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an extremely determined man who intends to build an opera house in the middle of a jungle.

     Director: Werner Herzog
     Writer: Werner Herzog
     Stars: Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale and Jose Lewgoy


How to find streaming services for movies:


Scores for April 2025 movies:

Anora (2024) 5 (6 votes)

Films of Merit




Thursday, March 13, 2025

Movies for April 2025: Anora and Mulholland Drive

      Jon Lee will host our meeting at his home with a Zoom option at noon on April 2. We will discuss:

Anora (2024)

    A young escort from Brooklyn meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.

     Director:  Sean Baker
     Writer: Sean Baker
     Stars: Mikey Madison, Paul Weissman and Yura Borisov

Mulholland Drive (2001)

     After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

     Director: David Lynch
     Writer: David Lynch
     Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux

How to find streaming services for movies:



Scores for March 2025 movies:

I'm Still Here (2024) 7.9 (8 votes)

Films of Merit