White Bird (2024)

White Bird tells a Holocaust story in the gentlest voice it can find: a strong first step for younger viewers, too tidy for everyone else. In this Wonder spinoff, Julian, the kid who was cruel to Auggie, is trying to fit in at a new school when his grandmother, played by Helen Mirren, comes over from Paris and tells him about 1942, when she was Sara Blum, a Jewish schoolgirl in France whose comfortable life collapsed when the Nazi occupation reached her town. A quiet classmate, Julien, helps her slip away during a roundup at school, and his parents hide her in their barn for more than a year. Every night he brings her the day’s lessons, and their friendship is the film’s heart. The young leads are lovely, and Mirren gives the frame story real weight. Some speeches turn preachy, and the ending gets syrupy. A 6.9 because it handles real history with care and asks kids to be brave. $7,561 says you call your grandmother this week and ask about the year she turned 12.

What works: The friendship between Sara and Julien is tender and believable, and Helen Mirren anchors the present-day story with quiet authority.

What doesn’t: It softens a brutal history into a neat moral lesson, with a few preachy speeches and a sentimental final stretch.

Who it’s for: Families with kids around Wonder age who are ready for their first serious movie about World War II.