One of the most important and most consequential days in the history of the 20th century was D-Day, the day the Allied forces invaded France by landing on the beaches of Normandy. Pressure tells the true and mostly untold story of one of the contributing elements to the decision to invade on that day: The British weather.

In the last 72 hours before the invasion, Britain’s chief meteorological officer, Dr. James Stagg (Andrew Scott), is called in to evaluate the weather and advise the Allied Commander, Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Frazer) on the weather and if it was suitable for the mission. As it turned out, there was a huge weather front coming in and Stagg could simply not allow the mission to proceed, even though the entire high command, and most of his own subordinates, were pressuring him to go along. Too much was at stake.

You can’t watch too many war movies. After I walked out of the theater, I had to tell myself that I had just witnessed one crucial aspect of one of the most consequential battles in history. Yet, all I could think of was: Here was another example of our leaders sending other people’s sons and daughters into harm’s way. Eisenhower surely learned, but our president today plays with this awesome responsibility like it’s a reality show – you “get killed” and it means you’re voted off the island. Well – no – you get killed and you’re dead!

Dead!

Pressure is a movie I definitely recommend you watch. It made me think I should pick up a biography of Eisenhower so I could learn what stuff real presidents are made of.

There is a neighborhood in Boston named Charlestown, which is famous for having an unusual high number of armed robberies. For generations, crime families have arisen and their children stay in town, live lives of crime and robbery.

A group of friends are particularly good at it. They wear masks, enter banks, rob them at gunpoint, and hope nothing goes wrong before they can escape with the loot. Due to an unexpected twist, they end up kidnapping a young female bank manager, and they have to let her go later, hoping she didn’t recognize any of them and pick up any clues.

The gang leader Doug (Ben Affleck) ends up falling for her. They develop a relationship that is based on some massive lies. She cannot ever find out he was her kidnapper, and his gang friends cannot know he is dating her.

As you might suspect, things don’t go well.

This movie is well-done, fast-paced and full of tense moments. A great crime story.

Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) is born in the early 20th century somewhere in the woods of northern Washington State, not far from Spokane. In those years, before World War 1, Washington was frontier country. Robert does not know who his parents were, whether he is an orphan, or an abandoned child. He grows up to be a reflective boy, trying to understand the world around him from observing it.

As a young man, his life changes and becomes happier when he meets Gladys (Felicity Jones) in church. Soon they are inseparable, get married and have a child. They build a cabin on an acre of land in the woods, near a creek and they have a daughter.

Being a logger and a railroad builder are the only jobs Robert can find, and unfortunately the seasonal work separates him from his young family for months at a time. It makes for a stressful life for both of them. They dream of saving some money, starting a sawmill and grow vegetables for the market, which would enable the family to live together year-round.

But tragedy overwhelms the family when a wildfire sweeps through their area while Robert is not home.

Train Dreams is based on a Novella by Denis Johnson. Joel Edgerton delivers an Oscar-worthy performance and the cinematography is incredible. It is a quiet and very slow movie. There is little action, just lots of contemplation and observation. Once I realized this was a pensive film, I settled in and let it take me with it. A few tears rolled down my cheeks when I was overwhelmed by the hardness of life those frontier people had to endure, and the brutal realities that literally struck people dead in the middle of the day, completely unexpectedly. They were helpless. Somehow they had to survive. Somehow they had to live their lives, even if there was no joy other than knowing they were one with the world.

And thus Train Dreams follows the life of Robert Grainier from beginning to end. When the credits rolled, I just sat there, listening to the music, while my mind sorted out why life is beautiful even when it is sometimes really, really hard.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was first released over 50 years ago in 1975. It first was a box office flop, but by 1977, alternative movie theaters started midnight showings and it quickly created a cult following. I am aging myself when I tell you that I must have seen the movie at least 20 times in the years of 1978 and 1979, always at midnight, in Phoenix, Arizona. It was a great event to bring our friends and guests to.

While visiting my son and his girlfriend for Thanksgiving, we looked for cult movies to watch, and we talked about The Room, which my son had made us watch ten years ago. I will reassert here that The Room is the worst movie all all time. But speaking of cult movies, I remembered The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and so we watched it together. For me it was the first time after many decades, and while I had remembered many vignettes, much of it I had forgotten about. For instance, the singing lips through the initial scrolling of the credits was such an iconic feature – how could I possibly forget it?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a rock musical that crossed many cultural threshold in its time. It was also one of the first audience participation movies. People came to the theater dressed up like the characters, they recited key lines of dialog before they came up in the movie, and there was much audience participation, like throwing rice during the wedding scene, throwing toast and lighting cigarette lighters (we didn’t have smartphones with flashlights then). Going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show was much more than just going to a movie, it was an experience that you took your friends to.

The film opened up the world for the LGBTQ+ community. It celebrated gender fluidity, queerness, cross dressing, sexual liberation and bisexuality in an unapologetic manner at a time when such images or concepts were rarely dealt with in mainstream society or media. It provided visibility and a sense of community for people who had few opportunities for public expression of queerness.

The music is pop rock and original to the movie. The songs stayed with me over the decades. In particular the “let’s do the time warp again” song is the one I think about when I think about The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Susan Sarandon has a lead role as Janet, and it was one of her earlier movies at the beginning of her career. Also, notable is Meat Loaf’s role as Eddie in the film. Tim Curry, who plays the lead character of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, was already a Broadway actor when he appeared in the movie. He rose to prominence with this role.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a sanctuary where outsiders, misfits, and young people exploring identity could gather without judgment. I was proud to be part of that world as a 20-year-old, just coming of age and looking forward in wonder to the world awaiting me. Life was just getting started. “Don’t dream it—be it” became a catch-phrase for me, and I still fondly remember those days.

Watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show with my family felt a bit like passing a torch. It was nostalgia all the way.