This month’s three picks include two movies, in theaters and streaming, and a Netflix series. The Fablemans is Steven Spielberg’s beautiful semi-autobiographical movie of his childhood from about the age of 8 to 18.  The Banshees of Inisherin is a quirky, offbeat very dark comedy, brilliantly acted. And Emily in Paris, now in season three is a surprisingly irresistible, guilty pleasure binge watch for women of all ages.

The Fablemans: A Love Story to Film and Family

In some theaters and available to rent on Amazon Prime.

Steven Spielberg’s semi-biographical movie about his life from about the age of 8 18, when he is just about to start his career in Hollywood, is a beautiful moving, loving, and poignant coming of age story.  While it starts off a bit slow, stick with it. It’s a love story to filmmaking (which he started doing as a young child) and a love story to his messy childhood.  Sammy Fableman (the Spielberg character) as a young child is played by Mateo Zoryon and then by Gabreil LaBelle as the adolescent Sammy. His genius, but emotionally unavailable father is brilliantly played by Paul Dano. Michelle Williams is perfect as the creative, sensitive mother, a former concert pianist, who encourages his filmmaking from the time he is a child, and who is in love with his father’s best friend. Sammy carries the burden of his mother’s secret and when they move from Arizona to Northern California, a move no one except his father wants, he finds himself the only Jewish kid in a new high school where he is bullied. But the saving grace throughout, is his camera and creating stories on film.  Well done Mr. Spielberg, one of the most brilliant filmmakers of our generation.

 The Banshees of Inisherin: A Quirky Offbeat Dark Comedy

In theaters and streaming on HBOMax

This dark Irish tragic comedy is quirky and offbeat, and also a brilliant study in despair, loneliness, and the simplicity of living in the moment.  This dialogue driven film, takes place in a remote island off the coast of Ireland, during the during the Irish Civil War in 1923. The two main characters, Pádraic and Colm, brilliantly played by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, were best friend until Colm abruptly decides one day that he no longer likes Padraic, who doesn’t understand why and refuses to accept that fact. A brooding Colm has decided that his time on earth must be marked by something lasting, and he is working on a composing a song on his fiddle and doesn’t want any distractions from the banality of Padraic.

Padraci is a simple man, whom everyone describes as the nicest man on the island. His daily life is highlighted by a trip every afternoon to the pub to chat with Colm. Aside from his best friend, who has now abandoned him, he loves his miniature donkey and his sister with whom they share their childhood home. Unlike his sister, who can’t wait to leave the island and Colm who is tortured by his legacy, Padraic, just happily lives life moment by moment. As strangely as the movie progresses, I dare you to stop watching it, and stop thinking about it later.

Emily in Paris: An Irresistible Guilty Pleasure Binge Watch

All three seasons now streaming on Netflix

What is about a twenty something woman who goes to work in a French advertising agency in Paris, becomes besties with a young woman who has escaped her wealthy family to become a singer on the streets of Paris, falls in love with a charming chef who happens to have a girlfriend, that has women of all ages charmed and binge watching the series? Well there’s the delightful and adorable Lily Colin who plays Emily, the very talented Mindy Chen who plays her best friend, the two incredibly handsome charming young guys who Emily loves, Sylvie, the older, sexy, and very French owner of the ad agency Emily works for and some of the quirky colleagues Emily befriends. Add to that the beautiful scenery of Paris and the French countryside, and the clothes!!!!  Costume designer Patricia Fields, famous for her designs for Carrie Bradshaw and the other gals in Sex in the City, and you have an irresistible guilty pleasure binge watch.