For Fukushima Families, a Brief Respite from Nuclear Nightmare

At least 11 kids and their parents, refugees from Fukushima and other parts of Japan, are visiting Oregon this month and living with U.S. host families as part of a grass-roots effort to give them a break from the stress and health risks they had been facing at home.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami forced residents indoors for months, required them to wear protective gear when they did venture outside — even made them wary of plants, grass and rain.

“I remember the first time I spoke with my guest,” said one of the US hosts. “She said, ‘I have been dreaming about taking a walk with my baby in a stroller.'”

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Young Woman Approaches Elder Eating Alone, Now Have Weekly Lunch Date

Many of us have been there: we see a senior citizen eating alone and think, maybe I should go talk to them, or sit with them…but we’re not sure what the response will be.

Brooke Oacha of  Texas,  decided it was worth a try—and the elderly lady sitting at the “table for one” by herself (pictured below) was absolutely elated.

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Rate of Uninsured Hits New Low as More Americans Get Health Coverage

A new study shows more Americans have health insurance than ever before.

According to the latest quarterly Gallup poll, the rate of uninsured adults is down to 11.4 percent.

That number represents an almost 5-percent drop since the Affordable Care Act mandate took effect at the start of 2014, when an estimated 16% of Americans over 18 years old were not covered.

In a study released last month by the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than a half million adults reported “significant” improvements in affordable health insurance, access to doctors and medications since the last two annual open enrollment sessions.

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Wild Tales

Dark as hell and so very funny, this Argentine film is an anthology of shorter stories — think Pulp Fiction without the crisscrossing — the segments bound together instead by a shared theme of people at their breaking point. Writer and director Damián Szifrón has razor-sharp timing — the first sequence, which takes place entirely before the opening credits, builds to an applause-worthy punchline, while the last story is set at a wedding that goes terribly, wonderfully wrong. In between, there’s murder, a cover-up, and parking, with an undercurrent of class consciousness that never interferes with how bitterly enjoyable this movie 

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Phoenix

It’ll make you feel like your heart’s being ripped to shreds, but Christian Petzold’s post-World War II film about a Jewish woman returning home from the camps after reconstructive surgery to a husband who no longer recognizes her is quietly perfect. And it’s a far more satisfying experience than that traumatic description would have you expect — as much a noir as a historical drama, it’s anchored by a marvelous Nina Hoss in the lead role, and shows the process of a woman starting to come to terms with what happened to her and those who would comfortably forget the past and their role in it. —A.W.

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Mr. Holmes

It’s Ian McKellan playing Sherlock Holmes, primarily as an old man at 93, weary and grasping to marshal his fraying mental acumen, and also in flashbacks 30 years earlier, as Holmes stands in full command of his keen mental faculties while he embarks on his final case. What more could one possibly want? —A.B.V.

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Wonderful Movies You Probably Missed This Year That You Can Watch Right Now

Most people first got to know Amy Winehouse well after her alcohol and drug abuse led to her biggest hit, “Rehab” — a song that subsequently made the peerless jazz vocalist a household name, and a tabloid fixture up to her death in 2011. This deeply affecting and incredibly well-crafted doc paints a much more complex portrait of Winehouse, starting well before her sudden onslaught of fame. As director Asif Kapadia (Senna) plays dozens of audio interviews with Winehouse’s friends and family over archival video from Winehouse’s life, we come to see her as a charming, funny, profoundly talented, and deeply flawed young woman who was failed by far too many of those closest to her. —Adam B. Vary

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