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Digital Trends
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
5 best HBO Max movies to watch on Memorial Day
Memorial Day occupies its awkward corner at the end of May as a time both to honor our fallen heroes and to celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer. To that end, both war films and summer films are called for to while away the long weekend before we can start preparing our out-of-office emails. Here are five movies on HBO Max worthy of any post-barbecue evening — three movies about summer and two about war. We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Recommended Videos Mystic Pizza (1988) Mystic Pizza, the story of three waitresses at a real-life Connecticut eatery the summer before college, does everything movies of this type are supposed to do in creating an impossibly bucolic world: everyone owns waterfront property, it's perpetually a beautiful New England summer, and townies look like Julia Roberts. Also, everyone survives exclusively on pizza, though it is Connecticut-style pizza, which proves you can't have everything. With a script co-written by Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Alfred Uhry, Mystic Pizza has a pedigree far more prestigious than its (forgive me) cheesy reputation. Stream Mystic Pizza on HBO Max. Seven Samurai (1954) For any other filmmaker, Seven Samurai would be a career-defining masterpiece. For Akira Kurosawa, it was merely an entry in his impossibly illustrious 1950s, alongside Rashomon, Ikiru, and Throne of Blood. Takashi Shimura (also a co-star of Rashomon and Ikiru) leads a band of mercenaries contracted to engage in a great battle to protect a village from bandits. Seven Samurai was made in the rubble of Japan's recovery from World War II, and it is, unmistakably, a war film. It is a portrait of what makes a society both at peace and at war — its organization, discipline, fears, entertainment, and weaknesses — and its selective need for those who can protect it in a crisis, only to discard them once that crisis has passed. Stream Seven Samurai on HBO Max. Aftersun (2022) Aftersun, a Charlotte Wells film loosely based on a summer trip the director took with her own father as a child, feels like a memory. Set at a low-grade beach resort in Turkey, the film follows Wells' counterpart, 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio), and her 30-year-old father, Calum (Paul Mescal). Calum's youth gets him confused for Sophie's brother more than once, and the keen sense that his childhood was interrupted by Sophie's arrival pervades the film. Mescal received his first Oscar nomination for this achingly gorgeous memory play. Stream Aftersun on HBO Max. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Forty years of British war-making are soaringly summarized in this superb film by the prototypical British wartime filmmakers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes). Roger Livesey is Clive Wynne-Candy, who climbs from enlisted man in the Boer War to major general during World War II, guided by a sense of stereotypically English honor that becomes more archaic as the century winds on. There is something unique about the way Powell and Pressburger use Technicolor. Their films, especially this one, have a texture and richness almost nothing can match; one wants to lick them off the screen. Stream The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on HBO Max. A Tale of Summer (1996) Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) has a problem. He's waiting patiently by the seaside in the north of France for his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Lena (Aurélia Nolin), but he's also being pursued by Solene (Gwenaëlle Simon) and nursing a will-they-won't-they friendship with waitress Margot (Amanda Langlet). This, if you're curious, is what passes for a problem in France. Éric Rohmer's exquisitely French romance, lazy and contemplative as a perfect summer's day, never ceases to delight as the years go on. Stream A Tale of Summer on HBO Max.
Scottish Sun
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Julia Roberts poses with her three grown-up kids for first time in years as son Henry, 17, is splitting image of mom
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) JULIA Roberts has posed with her three grown-up kids for the first time in years - and her son Henry, 17, is the spitting image of his famous mom. The iconic actress shares her three children with her cinematographer husband Danny Moder. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 4 Julia Roberts has posed with her three grown-up kids for the first time in years - and her son Henry, 17, is the spitting image of his famous mom Credit: Instagram/modermoder 4 Julia and husband Danny Credit: Getty The couple married Julia on July 4, 2002, after they met on the set of The Mexican two years earlier. Julia and Danny have three children, twins - daughter Hazel Patricia and son Phinnaeus Walter, 20 - and son, Henry Daniel, 17. Phinnaeus and Hazel were born on November 28, 2004. Henry Moder was born in June 2007. He is Julia's youngest child with her husband, Danny. And Julia's husband shared the sweet photo of her with her three children. They could be seen positioned on a tree trunk, with the actress sitting with her daughter in front of her, and sons either side. She rested her arms on her sons legs and donned a huge grin, with shades on. Danny captioned the happy snap: 'Mothers make the coolest stuff. Love these guys.' Fans were loving the rare snap of Julia with all three of her children. Taylor Swift fan chats to Julia Roberts and Florence Hunt at Dublin concert One person penned: 'Happy Happy Mother's Day to America's favorite mamacita.' A second said: 'Wow, time flies! They are so big now,' and a third responded: 'What a beautiful family! Mother at the center of course, surrounded by love. As it should be 😉 'You both must be so happy to have everybody together again.' In 2019, Roberts informed The Sun how the film Ben Is Back, which she is starred in as a parent, changed the way she cares for her actual children and made her far stricter. 'I have three young children so I'm very careful about turning the TV on," she stated. 'It's interesting trying to raise kids in this day because it's all so new — the pressures, the resources, having the world in your hand like that." She continued: "I try to keep them off social media, because I don't really understand what they need that for right now." Julia made her first on-screen appearance in 1987, playing the role of Tracy in an episode of Crime Story. By 1988, she had already starred in a few movies, including Mystic Pizza and Satisfaction. She is estimated to earn between $20million and $30million a year, and comes from a family of performers. After briefly attending college in her home state of Georgia, Roberts moved to New York City, where she signed with a modeling agency and began taking acting classes. Roberts runs the production company Red Om Films, alongside her sister Lisa Gillan and their business partner Marisa Gill. The famed actress also has had multiple endorsement deals and ad campaigns, including luxury brand Gianfranco Ferre and cosmetics brand Lancome Paris. 4 The couple share the occasional look at their three children Credit: Instagram/modermoder
The Irish Sun
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Julia Roberts poses with her three grown-up kids for first time in years as son Henry, 17, is splitting image of mom
JULIA Roberts has posed with her three grown-up kids for the first time in years - and her son Henry, 17, is the spitting image of his famous mom. The iconic actress shares her three children with her cinematographer husband Danny Moder. Advertisement 4 Julia Roberts has posed with her three grown-up kids for the first time in years - and her son Henry, 17, is the spitting image of his famous mom Credit: Instagram/modermoder 4 Julia and husband Danny Credit: Getty The couple married Julia on July 4, 2002, after they met on the set of The Mexican two years earlier. Julia and Danny have three children, twins - daughter Phinnaeus and Hazel were born on November 28, 2004. Henry Moder was born in June 2007. He is Julia's youngest child with her husband, Danny. Advertisement And Julia's husband shared the sweet photo of her with her three children. They could be seen positioned on a tree trunk, with the actress sitting with her daughter in front of her, and sons either side. She rested her arms on her sons legs and donned a huge grin, with shades on. Danny captioned the happy snap: 'Mothers make the coolest stuff. Love these guys.' Advertisement Most read in Celebrity Fans were loving the rare snap of Julia with all three of her children. Taylor Swift fan chats to Julia Roberts and Florence Hunt at Dublin concert One person penned: 'Happy Happy Mother's Day to America's favorite mamacita.' A second said: 'Wow, time flies! They are so big now,' and a third responded: 'What a beautiful family! Mother at the center of course, surrounded by love. As it should be 😉 'You both must be so happy to have everybody together again.' Advertisement In 2019, Roberts informed 'I have three young children so I'm very careful about turning the TV on," she stated. 'It's interesting trying to raise kids in this day because it's all so new — the pressures, the resources, having the world in your hand like that." She continued: "I try to keep them off social media, because I don't really understand what they need that for right now." Advertisement Julia made her first on-screen appearance in 1987, playing the role of Tracy in an episode of Crime Story. By 1988, she had already starred in a few movies, including Mystic Pizza and Satisfaction. She is After briefly attending college in her home state of Georgia, Roberts moved to New York City, where she signed with a modeling agency and began taking acting classes. Advertisement Read more on the Irish Sun Roberts runs the production company Red Om Films, alongside her sister Lisa Gillan and their business partner Marisa Gill. The famed actress also has had multiple endorsement deals and ad campaigns, including luxury brand Gianfranco Ferre and cosmetics brand Lancome Paris. 4 The couple share the occasional look at their three children Credit: Instagram/modermoder 4 Julia made her first on-screen appearance in 1987, playing the role of Tracy in an episode of Crime Story Credit: Getty Advertisement
New York Times
18-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
Why Did the Seal Cross the Road? To Get to Connecticut's Pizza Haven.
It was an unusual 911 call on a Sunday afternoon in New Haven, Conn. At about 2:30 p.m., in a neighborhood full of auto shops, an IKEA and renowned pizzerias, someone reported that a seal was 'running back and forth' near a bridge underpass. When officers from the New Haven Police Department responded, there was the seal, flat on its stomach on a cold, snow-encrusted street in the city's industrial zone. No one knows how the seal, a gray male only a few weeks old, wandered so far from its natural ocean habitat. But in a city proud of its pizza scene, some joked it might have been drawn to the specialty slices made in coal-fired ovens. There is even a local specialty that would probably get its seal of approval. 'It was looking for clam pizza,' said Officer Christian Bruckhart, a spokesman for the New Haven Police Department. 'We deal with some weird stuff all the time, but this is certainly out of the ordinary even for us,' he said. 'Maybe we should just start keeping mackerel in the cruisers.' Within 24 hours, the seal had been rescued by volunteers from the Mystic Aquarium's animal rescue unit. It was given first aid and assigned a temporary name: SYHg2506. The letter S stands for 'stranded'; Y is for male; Hg for Halichoerus grypus, his genus and species; 25 for the year 2025; and 06 because this seal was the sixth marine mammal to be reported to the aquarium this year. Though the pizza explanation is amusing, there's a more likely reason for the seal's appearance in the urban world. This is the start of 'seal season,' explained Allison Tuttle, the chief zoological officer at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., a town with its own pizza lore because of the Julia Roberts movie 'Mystic Pizza.' From February to March each year, the aquarium is on the watch for errant baby seals in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, Dr. Tuttle said. 'We might see a big influx of gray seals born about three to six weeks ago, and yearling harp seals come down from the Arctic about this time,' Dr. Tuttle said. 'These animals can travel tremendous distances.' Gray seals are commonly found in coastal waters throughout the North Atlantic Ocean. The pups typically nurse for a few weeks. They come ashore to catch sun and rest on sand or rocks, but can end up stranded or confused when trying to avoid people or unleashed dogs, she said. 'The majority of them are healthy, happy seals taking a break,' she said. 'But sometimes, if they have injuries or are sick or have abnormalities, the team jumps into gear.' Seals are native to Connecticut and protected under federal law. Mystic Aquarium's 676 rescue volunteers use equipment stashed across the three states when the aquarium gets a call on its hotline. This year, one gray seal was rescued in Charlestown, R.I. Another was disentangled from some baling twine and released in Weekapaug, R.I. A harp seal near Bluff Point State Park in Connecticut was rescued but later died. Also in Rhode Island, a minke whale and another gray seal were found dead. The gray seal found in New Haven may have been seen several times. Early this month, a young seal was spotted going in and out of the water on a beach, Dr. Tuttle said. On Feb. 15, a seal, maybe the same one, was seen near the Shell & Bones Oyster Bar and Grill on New Haven Harbor. A rescue team said it was 'active and bright, but going the wrong way,' so it was escorted back to the beach. The next day, that seal meandered into the New Haven neighborhood, Dr. Tuttle said. 'That is no place for a little seal,' she added. When the aquarium's rescuers caught up to the seal, they saw he was underweight. They put him in their personal truck with help from the police and conservation officials from the state's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said Will Healey, the department's spokesman. The seal was about a quarter- or half-mile away from water, Dr. Tuttle said. The aquarium staff is now planning his future. For now, the seal is enjoying a diet of diluted fish formula and fluids to fatten him up to a normal 35 pounds. He will be given whole fish tossed into a pool to help him adjust to natural feeding. And he will be renamed as soon as his caregivers assess his personality, something they do every time a rescued animal is brought in. 'We pick different themes every year,' Dr. Tuttle said. 'This year's theme is bugs. But we will probably see if the New Haven Police Department would like to name the seal.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Buying a local movie theater 'seemed really crazy.' These couples did it anyway.
While many couples across the country will be hitting movie theaters for date night on Valentine's Day, other couples, like Colleen and Bill Barstow in Elkhorn, Neb., or Andrew and Juanita Thomas in Houston, will be making sure the projectors are running smoothly and the popcorn is fresh — just as they do every night. They're not the only ones. Yahoo Entertainment talked to several couples across the country who have become theater owners in their respective communities, revitalizing silver screens and giving locals a place to connect. For many of them, getting into the movie business was a decision they never planned. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. 'Some people come into this industry where they love the gears of a projector or they have the love affair with movies. And while [Colleen and I] certainly had that,' Bill told Yahoo Entertainment, 'nothing in our background would prepare us for this.' That said, none of the couples could imagine it any other way, and they have relished the vital roles they've played in their communities. Meet the four couples who shifted their careers to become local theater owners. After spending eight years in the Air Force, Bill Barstow was looking for something different in his new home outside Omaha. In the late 1980s, he and his wife, Colleen, were 'broke' at the time and 'looking to survive.' Originally from Detroit, the couple was hundreds of miles away from their support system. That's when Bill saw a newspaper ad showing a single-screen theater for sale. 'I went home and I told Colleen that I thought we could do this,' he told Yahoo. 'She thought I was crazy.' After talking the owner into taking monthly payments and borrowing $1,200 from three different credit cards, the Barstows made their purchase and named their company Main Street Theatres (now ACX Cinemas). The couple, who 'worked side by side from Day 1 on this,' wanted to change the perception of so-called 'mom and pop' theaters. 'We treated it like we were inviting people into our home,' Bill explained. 'If they're coming into your home, everything had to be perfect.' A favorite movie the pair often returns to is 1988 film Mystic Pizza, which hit theaters around the same time they opened theirs. 'It was the magic of movies, and it launched Julia Roberts,' Bill said. 'There was a series of movies where you could stand in the back of an auditorium and watch people react to things. And we loved that. Like, they were in our living room. They made a choice to come to us.' The Barstows now own theaters in five states, and their three children help run their growing business, which also includes separate restaurants and bars. 'One of the reasons that kept moving us to keep working hard was that we had a product that the community could come under one roof, and we were allowing people of all walks of life to create their own memories of, 'Oh, I saw this movie for the first time with my mom, my dad,'' Colleen said. 'Being able to recreate that for people is a really cool, cool thing we get to do.' Beth and Kevin Burrows own the single-screen North Bend Theatre in the town where the popular TV series Twin Peaks was filmed. The couple moved to the town in 1989, just before the show aired, but their love of movies began even earlier. 'We started dating in high school, and one of our very first dates was to a movie,' Beth told Yahoo. It was the 1979 wrestling movie Take Down, and, Beth says, 'That kind of cemented our relationship with each other, and movies have played just such an important role through all of our lives.' Their movie fandom continued into parenthood, as they took their two kids to see Harry Potter, the Narnia movies and the Hunger Games trilogy. 'So when our local theater came up for sale,' she said, 'we wanted to make sure that it stayed the way it's been since 1941.' Adding that she and her husband 'never thought that we would do this,' Beth said 'it just kind of all clicked together.' On April 1, 2018, they opened, playing everything from mainstream movies to vintage art house releases. 'That was a big April Fool's joke on each other,' she said. 'It was never in our plans.' The couple has since leaned heavily into the Twin Peaks lore, continuing the historical link from when its creator, David Lynch, the writer, Mark Frost, and much of the cast visited the theater for a sneak peek of the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me in August 1992. 'We have Twin Peaks days the last weekend in February,' she said. 'We've started something cool with the theater, the North Bend Walk of Fame, where we have handprints and stars of Kyle MacLachlan and Sheryl Lee.' On the weekend of Feb. 22, Twin Peaks actor Ray Wise will visit the theater to participate in post-screening Q&As and add his handprints to the sidewalk. 'So often we get stopped when we're out,' Beth added, 'and people will just say, 'Oh, we love what you're doing at the theater. It's so much more than just movies.'' The Burrows are keeping their love of movies in the family and have now included their son and his fiancée to help run their business. Ky J. Boyd fell in love with movies and movie theaters after seeing his first film, the 1970s The Aristocats, at the Liberty Falls Theater in Great Falls, Mont., where he grew up. 'I actually used to play movie theater in my parents' basement,' Boyd told Yahoo Entertainment. 'I chose Super 8 movies.' He later became interested in opening an arthouse theater while living in San Francisco with his husband, Michael O'Rand, and in 2000, he opened Rialto Cinemas, a five-screen theater in Santa Rosa, about an hour north of the city. While O'Rand 'was supportive from the get-go,' Boyd said, 'in our relationship, I'm the optimist and the dreamer, and Michael's the realist.' That meant creating a solid business plan and showing O'Rand all the numbers to prove how this investment could work. Boyd added that he 'really pushed me to do the research.' The theater 'succeeded beyond our wildest expectations.' He said it helped that four key films opened at around the same time: Best in Show, Billy Elliot, You Can Count on Me and O Brother, Where Art Thou? 'When you're opening an art house, you have to let the audience learn to trust you and trust your taste and learn to take chances on things that they might not otherwise seek out,' he explained. While Boyd and O'Rand have since closed the Santa Rosa location, they have three other Rialto Cinemas in California, in Sebastopol, Berkeley and El Cerrito. Boyd said he wanted to make his theaters a 'third place' after home and work, 'where people gather and the community comes together.' 'I love standing in the lobby on a Friday or Saturday night and just watching and seeing as one set of movies is getting out and another set is going in and the people that run into each other and, you know, family or friends,' he said. 'It's just so important that as movie theaters, we recognize that we aren't just entertainment. We're part of the communities in which we operate.' On one of their early dates, Andrew Thomas was talking to his then-girlfriend, Juanita, about what kind of businesses they each would have if they could start one. 'I said, 'I would have a movie theater,' and she said she would have a restaurant,' Thomas told Yahoo. 'And, you know, that was just — we were young.' Fast-forward past college, a marriage and three kids, and Thomas, who had majored in economics, said he didn't want a conventional job 'in the strictest sense.' 'So my wife said, 'Hey, you have talked about this movie theater thing for a long time, and there's an old movie theater closed down in the next town over. Why don't you just take a look at it and see what you find?' While starting a business 'seemed really crazy,' Thomas couldn't get the theater out of his head. After looking at their finances and having a 'Jerry Maguire moment' when he asked the theater's then-owner for a $150,000 investment to renovate the venue, he and Juanita were on their way. 'My wife is just one of the most supportive people,' Thomas said. 'It was just moments like that where we had to kind of grab each other by the hands and jump at the same time.' The couple opened Wellborne Cinemas in Alvin, Texas, on Christmas Day 2013. They have since opened the Moonstruck drive-in in downtown Houston and acquired another drive-in in northern Virginia. Thomas praised his wife's continued support and said he 'totally knew this was the girl for me 100%' when they saw the 2003 film Kill Bill together and loved it. 'It's like one of those moments where seeing a movie together, we realized what kind of connection we had with each other,' he said. Their shared taste in movies is something Thomas appreciates and calls it 'part of our story.' 'We'll have showings of The Notebook, and there's lots of couples that will come out, and they'll have a great time watching the romantic movie,' he said. 'And our romantic movie is a woman getting revenge against her former love — that's us.'
