‘Black Bag,’ ‘Bridget Jones,’ ‘Sinners’ Among Mid-Year Favorites for AARP’s Movies for Grownups

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning 

Granted, it’s impossible to find oodles of surprises in the grand finale of the Mission: Impossible franchise. When the president (Angela Bassett, 66) asks agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise, 62) to prevent the AI menace called the Entity from causing nuclear World War III, can he do it? Duh, though after an hour and a half you wish he’d hurry up. But that last hour or so pays off big time, with Ethan in peril in a sunken sub, driving cars thrillingly recklessly, even by Rome standards, and clinging by his fingernails to biplane wings. There’s even a hint of the wisdom of age in his age-proof character, and a satisfying old-pal camaraderie with longtime castmates Ving Rhames, 66, and Simon Pegg, 55.

Where to watch: Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

(From left) Natalie Morales and Sonequa Martin-Green star in a very modern ghost story, “My Dead Friend Zoe.”

Briarcliff Entertainment/Courtesy Everett Collection

My Dead Friend Zoe

Bronze Star-winning U.S. Army paratrooper Kyle Hausmann-Stokes directs the most inspiring ghost story of 2025 so far, about traumatized Afghanistan War vet Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), who’s haunted by the wisecracking shade of her fellow soldier Zoe (Natalie Morales). Ed Harris, 74, plays Merit’s stubborn Vietnam War vet granddad afflicted by incipient Alzheimer’s.

Where to watch: My Dead Friend Zoe

(From left) Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire and Brenda Vaccaro are the titular “nonnas” who are whizzes in the kitchen. Vince Vaughn is the entrepreneur who starts a restaurant showcasing their talents.

Jeong Park/Netflix

Nonnas

If you liked The Book Club or 80 for Brady, you should flip for Nonnas, a far superior, heartwarming comedy starring four grownup acting legends. Vince Vaughn, 55, plays a guy whose late Italian-American mom taught him, “One does not grow old at the table.” He misses her cooking, so he starts a restaurant with grannies (“nonnas”) instead of trained chefs: a raspy-voiced grouch (Lorraine Bracco, 70), a widow who needs a new lease on life (Brenda Vaccaro, 85), a pastry chef (Susan Sarandon, 78) and an ex-nun (Talia Shire, 79). The women have nine Oscar nominations among them, and though they may not win more for this delicious confection, they’ll win your heart.

Where to watch: Nonnas

Paddington Bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) goes on a South American adventure in “Paddington in Peru.”

BFA/StudioCanal/Courtesy Everett Collection

Paddington in Peru

Everyone’s favorite bear and his human family voyage to the Amazon and the Andes in search of Paddington’s Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton, 69), encountering a singing nun (Olivia Colman, 51), the wicked Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas, 64) and picturesquely scary landscapes. Take a child or grandkid, and you can explain to them the many cinematic references to The Sound of Music, Indiana Jones, Buster Keaton and Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, The Wrath of God.

Where to watch: Paddington in Peru

Presence

Prolific Soderbergh and Koepp made another of the season’s best and briskest movies, this one in the ghost-drama genre. We meet a troubled family: a high-strung mom (Lucy Liu, 56), a frustrated dad (Chris Sullivan) and their kids, a jock son (Eddy Maday) and a daughter stressed by the death of her friend (Callina Liang). Inventively, it’s all seen from the point of view of the ghost who’s haunting their house. Soderbergh nails the tricky technical challenge through long, uninterrupted takes, forsaking his usual quick-cutting magic and achieving a new kind of magic.

Where to watch: Presence

Michael B. Jordan plays twin brothers who become entangled with racist vampires in Depression-era Mississippi in “Sinners.”

Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

Sinners

In the year’s least expected $350 million hit and Oscar best-picture contender, director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan (whose Creed and Black Panther flicks earned billions) try their hand at a vampire movie. Jordan plays two roles, twins who rob some Chicago gangs and return to their hometown, Clarksdale, Mississippi — the birthplace of the blues — to invest the money in a new juke joint that summons the spirits of Black musical geniuses past and future. It’s a rip-roaring success, but Ku Klux Klansmen plan to kill them all, and a pack of clever KKK vampires who can sing immortal Irish folk songs incredibly well want to chomp them. It’s an action film, an art film, a deep meditation on Jim Crow America and the Great Migration, a superb musical and the most original vampire flick ever.

Where to watch: Sinners

Joan Chen and a costumed friend dance up a storm in “The Wedding Banquet.”

Bleecker Street Media/Courtesy Everett Collection

The Wedding Banquet

This reboot may not outdo Ang Lee’s 1993 classic, but it has something the original didn’t: more emphasis on intergenerational characters. Korean immigrant Min (Han Gi-chan) needs a green card, but his sweetheart (Bowen Yang) won’t marry him. So their gay friend Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) agrees to marry him platonically, in exchange for expensive IVF treatment for her sweetheart (Lily Gladstone). They’re good, but the grownups steal the show: Min’s grandma (Youn Yuh-jung, 77), who sweeps in to insist on a traditional Korean wedding, and Angela’s pro-gay mom (Joan Chen, 64), who seizes the spotlight and proves it is possible to dance more embarrassingly than Elaine on Seinfeld.

Where to watch: The Wedding Banquet