WEEK IN WOMEN: Kate Winslet’s GOODBYE JUNE plays Christmas Day – Brandy McDonnell reports
Academy Award–winning actor Kate Winslet’s (The Reader, Titanic, Mare of Easttown) star-studded directorial debut Goodbye June is heading to Netflix.
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Johnny Flynn
GOODBYE JUNE – Review by Loren King
Kate Winslet makes her directing debut and stars in Goodbye June, from a script by her son Joe Anders. He’s crafted a moving story about a large family forced to cope suddenly with a dying matriarch during the Christmas season. Messy, tender, funny — the film will be relatable for anyone who’s cared for a declining elder or spent time with loved ones in hospital rooms and experienced the gamut of bittersweet emotions that come with facing mortality.
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GOODBYE JUNE Review by Leslie Combemale
Kate Winslet’s directorial debut Goodbye June tells the story of a family grappling with the imminent loss of their matriarch June, played by Helen Mirren. Her cancer has returned with a vengeance. That causes the family to scramble to bring everyone together for a final goodbye and a celebration of the holiday early, so she can take part. Eldest child Julia ( Winslet) spearheads the planning, while 30-something unlaunched son Connor (Johnny Flynn) tries to stuff his sadness, and stay-at-home mom and middle child Molly (Andrea Riseborough) silently fumes she’s not as involved in the decisions. Family new ager Helen (Toni Collette) rushes to get home from LA. June’s ineffectual husband Bernie (Timothy Spall) just waits to be told what to do, all while nurse Angel (Fisayo Akinade), who is acting as an unofficial death doula, tries to keep June comfortable while focusing on giving the family a “good goodbye”.
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MOVIE OF THE WEEK December 12, 2025: GOODBYE JUNE
Humor and pathos go hand in hand in Kate Winslet’s moving directorial debut Goodbye June. As the film — written by Winslet’s son, Joe Anders — follows a boisterous British family preparing to say a final goodbye to their beloved wife/mother/grandmother, it reminds viewers that death is an inevitable part of life, something to be planned for and accepted with grace and love, if not necessarily welcomed with open arms.
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RIPLEY – Review by Diane Carson
Steven Zaillian, responsible for directing and writing the screenplay for all eight episodes in the new Netflix series Ripley, resists exploiting sensationalism or indulging melodrama, Zaillian denies Tom Ripley an appealing, charismatic personality, even to his victims. It’s just that Ripley’s manipulative strategies, combined with his indifference to shame or humane behavior, facilitate his perverted ways. Devoid of any social graces, con man Ripley relies on the goodness of others and their inability to imagine his depravity, even when details don’t add up.
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RIPLEY – Review by Susan Granger
The idiom “Everything old is new again…” can be applied to writer/director Steven Zaillian’s sensational new noir Netflix series Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith’s pulpy, best-selling novels. Sociopathic antihero Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is a down-on-his-luck grifter in 1961 New York who is hired by wealthy shipping magnate to travel to Italy to try to convince his prodigal son Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) to return home. Tom’s acceptance of this lucrative job opens the door to a labyrinthine life of crime. As soon as he arrives in the picturesque coastal village of Atrani, he begins to ingratiate himself with entitled Dickie, much to the annoyance of his resentful girl-friend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning), who is suspicious from the getgo. “I’m not someone who takes advantage of people,” Tom claims when, in fact, that’s exactly who he is.
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ONE LIFE – Review by Lois Alter Mark
There are certain movies you know would have a huge impact on the world if only the right people would see them. One Life, based on the true story of the man who saved hundreds of children during the Holocaust, is definitely one of those. Sir Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn portray the older and younger versions of real-life hero, Sir Nicholas “Nicky” Winton, and both are so perfect in the role, they will move you to tears – and, hopefully, action.
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ONE LIFE (TIFF 2023) – Review by Ulkar Alakbarova
Based on true events, One Life follows Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who was deeply affected by the fate that Jewish children could face when Nazi Germany declared the beginning of the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Nicholas (Johnny Flynn, portraying a younger Winton) promptly decided to involve all the friends he could find in Prague to save as many Jewish children as possible who were at risk of imminent danger.
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OPERATION MINCEMEAT – Review by Martha K Baker
Ian Fleming — yes, that Ian Fleming — narrates Operation Mincemeat: “In any story,” he writes, “there is that which is seen and that which is hidden.” Such is the case with Operation Mincemeat and the fascinating — and flawed — film based on the true event. The time is July 1943 during World War II. The place is England; the target is Sicily.
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