Get the popcorn ready for these four 2025 films featuring older adult protagonists and themes about family and aging.
An Italian family’s culinary dreams. A dystopian sci-fi odyssey. An intergenerational friendship in Florida. An ill-conceived art heist. In some of the year’s top films, older adults aren’t pigeonholed into stereotypical roles–they’re starring in diverse stories about late-in-life heroes.
Nonnas
Nonnas stars Vince Vaughn as Joe Scaravella, a Staten Island would-be restauranter. But the real stars are the nonnas, or grandmothers, whom Joe enlists instead of professional chefs to cook for the guests at Enoteca Maria –a real-life restaurant still in operation. After his mother dies, Joe wants to honor both her and his nonna, and their famous cooking, by opening a restaurant where the chefs are only nonnas and where the customers feel like they’re eating at their childhood dinner table. Things don’t go according to plan, as the nonnas initially fail to get along, a kitchen fire sets back the opening, and a key food critic won’t deign to review a Staten Island establishment. But this is a comedy best described as heartwarming, and you can rest assured that it all works out in the end. The film also stars Susan Sarandon as one of the nonnas. Find it on Netflix.
The Blue Trail
Tereza is a 77-year-old lifelong resident of a small Brazilian town. When the government knocks on her door one day to tell her it’s time to relocate to a senior housing colony, she declines–but it’s not optional. What ensues is a dystopian odyssey along the Amazon river, and an expertly-plotted tale of one woman’s search for freedom from authoritarian rule. The Blue Trail (O Último Azul) stars Denise Weinberg as Tereza, who escapes the government’s “wrinkle wagons”--or cages on flatbed trucks that haul away the noncompliant elders–to embark on her increasingly magical journey. “What’s remarkable about The Blue Trail and makes it such a delight,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, “is that despite all the oppression in the air, it’s a movie filled with hope and faith in human resilience at any age.” As of this writing The Blue Trail wasn’t yet streaming, but keep an eye out for it!
Eleanor the Great
Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut stars June Squibb, 96, who last year made her first star turn (after a career of supporting roles) in the comedy Thelma. In Eleanor the Great, Squibb plays 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, who recently moved in with her daughter in New York City after the death of her best friend and longtime roommate, Bessie, played by Rita Zohar. Looking for companionship, Eleanor finds herself by accident in a Holocaust survivors’ support group. She didn’t survive the Holocaust, but Bessie did. When Eleanor shares her friend’s story as her own, it takes on a life of its own and brings her into contact with a grieving journalist, a news anchor, and a suite of characters played by actors including Erin Kellyman, Jessica Hecht, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. “The film may trip over its own contrivances,” writes Lindsey Bahr in her review, “but their performances will leave you moved.” Eleanor the Great is available on major streaming platforms.
Any Day Now
This one is just plain fun. Like Nonnas, Any Day Now is based on a true story, but a very different kind–this is the tale of one of the world’s great unsolved art heists. It’s 1990, and Marty Lyons (Paul Guilfoyle, 76) is a career criminal who targets hapless twenty-something security guard Steve (Taylor Gray) to join the gang that will lift 13 paintings from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The multi-million-dollar scheme involves a motley crew of other semi-retired criminals, whom Steve is never sure if he wants to trust. Critics describe Any Day Now as predictable genre fare: not all that original, but enjoyable for the performances. And the way the plot unfolds, the characters–Marty in particular–are often one step ahead of the audience. Guilfoyle, an accomplished character actor, brings an atmosphere of mystery and comedy that makes the movie a fun diversion. Find it on streaming.
Are you watching any of these movies over the holidays? Let us know what you think! And remember to send us your favorite 2026 movies featuring late-in-life protagonists for next year’s movie roundup.
