Before COVID-19, only two days a year had no scheduled professional sports activity—the day before and the day after the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in July. Now, sports fans might have to wait a year before they can see another Stanley Cup or NBA playoffs or a rematch between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are out for revenge after learning in the off-season that the Astros’ 2017 World Series title is tainted by a cheating scandal.

Few images from World War II are as heart wrenching as those of Jewish child survivors of the Holocaust. A new PBS movie, The Windermere Children, and an accompanying documentary, The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words, tell the poignant, redemptive story of some of those youth.

With the coronavirus pandemic exacerbating world governments’ servicing of over $253 trillion in worldwide debt, leaders around the globe are making incredibly difficult decisions as they balance saving lives from the virus and avoiding a global economic collapse.

Viewers who want to watch a film that displays the trials of leadership in a similar no-win situation should consider going old school and giving the 1964 classic Fail Safe a watch (available on Amazon Prime).

When actress Gwyneth Paltrow last month suggested to her Instagram followers that they use the coronavirus-imposed social isolation to “write a book, learn an instrument or a language or learn to code online, draw or paint,” some responded with eye-rolling.

Fred Haise, now 86, said he will mark “boom day” on Monday, the day when an oxygen tank burst on the spacecraft carrying him and fellow astronauts Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert. Saturday is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, a planned moon voyage that turned into a 200,000-mile rescue mission for the astronauts aboard the damaged craft. Mission Cmdr. Lovell, 92, said he considers himself lucky to have survived the trip and to have reached its golden anniversary. Swigert died in 1982.

With productions closed down and the red carpets rolled up during the coronavirus outbreak, celebrities are sheltering in place along with the rest of the world. But that doesn’t mean they’ve stepped out of the limelight.

Filmmakers who tackle themes of social inequality sometimes allow agendas to run roughshod over storytelling. Producer Anthony Mackie and director George Nolfi take a more engaging approach in The Banker, delivering a teachable moment about racial injustice while keeping drama front and center. 

The film owes much of its watchability to an intriguing main character and top-notch performances from Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson. Strong language and a split focus are drawbacks.