DISCLOSURE
DAY (2026)
If there is anyone who can make me
believe in extra-terrestrial beings, the man who made “Close Encounters of the
Third Kind” and “E.T.” tops the list. Even when Steven Spielberg wears his
heart (and hopes) on his sleeve, folding a film-long chase into a plea for a
more caring world, as he does in his new picture, his masterful craft and
understanding of human nature results in cinema both highly entertaining and
grounded in the real world.
This may be splitting hairs, but to me
Spielberg doesn’t really make sci-fi movies; certainly not in the mode of “Star
Wars,” “Star Trek,” and the “Superman” and “Avengers” franchises. He makes
films in which things happen on Earth that we’ve never seen, but aren’t so
futuristic or imaginary that they require a complete suspension of disbelief.
Even in “Disclosure Day,” in which characters have the ability to see what
other humans can’t, there’s an explanation of sorts.
Basically,
“Disclosure Day” is the journey of two individuals who, separately, have found
their destiny and find themselves on the run from a secret government agency
that wants to silence them.
Emily Blunt plays Margaret, a Kansas City TV weather person who has some kind of mental breakdown on air, then hospitalized after seeming to speak in tongues. Escaping from the hospital, Margaret realizes she has to go somewhere but doesn’t know where. (Shades of Richard Dreyfuss’ character in “Close Encounters”).
Meanwhile, Dr. Kellner (Josh O’Connor)
thinks he knows where he’s going. As an employee of Wardex, a secret
government-backed company that holds the evidence of alien visitation, he’s
made off with what he keeps referring to as “the archives” and looks to
rendezvous with the like-minded Hugo (Colman Domingo), who seems to be
directing the building of a movie set in a large soundstage.
Spielberg and co-writer David Koepp (“Jurassic
Park,” “Mission: Impossible”) keep audiences in the dark for nearly the first
hour of the film, a bold move in the age of streaming, but fleshes out Margaret
and Kellner enough that I was willing to wade through the foggy plot to see
where they were headed. It’s worth the wait.
If it really matters, “Disclosure Day”
isn’t a great or cutting-edge film, but a somewhat loopy, yet fascinating
speculation on alien life visiting Earth and the impact that reveal has on
humanity.
Blunt proves to be the perfect Spielberg
heroine: a believable every-woman who turns into a single-focused warrior,
tossing aside all hurdles. While O’Connor, memorable last year in “The
Mastermind” and “Wake Up Dead Man,” is well cast as a very sincere whistleblower
who finds himself in deep end of the pool.
Giving what may be the best performance of
the picture is Colin Firth (2010 Oscar winner for “The King’s Speech”) as the
director of Wardex, determined to rein in the truth Margaret, Kellner and Hugo
want the world to know. Somewhat ironic, the three principles of this American
story are played by Brits (Blunt, O’Connor and Firth).
Spielberg, who will turn 80 in December,
keeps delivering first-rate pictures. One thinks of him as a 1980s-90s
director, but in the past 10 years he’s made “The Post,” “West Side Story,”
“The Fabelmans” and now “Disclosure Day,” a record that ranks with the best in
the business.
PRESSURE
(2026)
No event in human history has been
chronicled on the big screen more frequently than World War II, but I don’t
think a film has ever focused on the importance of weather reports.
Based on a stage play written by veteran
British character actor David Haig (he also starred in the play), the movie
details the tense days leading up to D-Day, when the operation’s commander,
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser), recruits a highly respected
Scottish meteorologist to the weather team. James Stagg’s job is to advise Ike
on weather conditions expected for the Allied assault on Utah Beach in
Normandy.
Turns out Stagg (Andrew Scott of “All of
Us Strangers” and “Blue Moon”) isn’t much of a team player, disagreeing with
group’s trust in historical weather conditions and fighting the staff’s plans
to launch on June 5. A snarling, Gen. Montgomery (Damian Lewis), who previously
relied on meteorologist Irving Krick (Chris Messina), isn’t interested in
dissenting opinions, but Eisenhower eventually puts his trust in the newfangled
ideas of Stagg.
This very focused story struggles to
fill out a 100-minute movie and its arguments between Stagg and Ike grow
repetitive, but the exceptional acting and the importance of the decisions
being made, sustain the picture.
Bringing a softer edge to the somewhat
claustrophobic atmosphere is Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin,” “F1:
The Movie”) as Kay Summersby, Eisenhower’s trusted assistant and, by most
accounts, his mistress (an issue avoided in this film).
Fraser is a bit over-the-top as Ike and
more looming than the 5’10” future president was even when his anger flared.
But this is Stagg’s story—he has quite a temper himself—and Scott is once again
pitch perfect. Few actors are better at displaying inner turmoil while putting
on a stoic front. There’s a wonderful scene near the end when his predictions
come true (Ike moved D-Day to June 6) and his insistence to delay the invasion
is validated.
Director Anthony Maras previously directed
“Hotel Mumbai” (2018), about a terrorist attack in India.
I first learned about the importance of
the weather to this landmark event, along with all the other issues Eisenhower
dealt with, in the superbly researched history “The Light of Battle” by Michel
Paradis.
THERE’S
ALWAYS A WOMAN (1938)
Time has dulled many a film once
considered a sparkling gem. I recently re-watched Howard Hawks’ acclaimed 1934
comedy “Twentieth Century,” starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard as
egotistical show biz clichés who spend 90 minutes insulting one another.
The mile-a-minute line readings,
dripping with sarcasm, and a female character who goes toe-to-toe with the
leading man, usually out-smarting him, elevated the picture to landmark status,
creating a template for what became known as screwball comedies. While I
acknowledge the pioneering status of “Twentieth Century,” it’s more irritating
than funny. (Don’t get me started on “Bringing Up Baby.”)
The next day on TCM, I laughed out-loud
during almost every scene of this rarely screened Joan Blondell-Melvyn Douglas
comedy, a film never considered a landmark of any type, all but forgotten after
its initial run 88 years ago.
As I’ve written before, Blondell may be the most underrated actress of the 1930s: not only did she star in a half dozen films each year, but her knock-about physicality, upbeat personality and wide-eyed expression made her more of a “screwball” than accomplished actresses such as Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn or Claudette Colbert ever managed. Blondell wasn’t half the actress those other women were, but she knew exactly how the unkempt blonde sitting at the end of the bar talked and acted.
In “There’s Always a Woman,” a wonderfully
clever title, she takes up the private eye business her husband (the rather
miscast Douglas) has abandoned for a more respectable post with the district
attorney. Unlike Myrna Loy’s Nora in “The Thin Man” series, she’s stays one
step ahead of her husband and never stops letting him know how far behind he
remains.
Mary Astor, in a role that hints at her
performance as Brigid three years later in “The Maltese Falcon,” hires Sally
(Blondell) to investigate her husband and, then, no surprise, he’s killed and
Douglas’ Bill is on the cast for the DA’s office, competing for clues with his
wife, a clever amateur. At one point, while interviewing Astor, Sally picks up
a very large magnify glass, looking through it to prove her detective skills.
Like a cartoon character, she’s bounding about in almost every scene: jumping
on couches, being rolled out of bed, fake punching her husband in the back,
flirting with police, banging pointlessly on a typewriter.
Written by three veteran studio
scripters, Gladys Lehman, Wilson Collison and Philip Rapp, and directed by
Alexander Hall, “There’s Always a Woman” represents everything that make 1930s
pictures endure as entertainment.
Hall mostly directed B films in the 1930s
and 40s, but scored an Oscar nomination for one of the great comedies of the
1940s, “Here Comes Mr. Jordan”—which on last viewing was still very funny.
TUNER
(2026)
While the set-up proves more appealing
than the follow-through, this low-key, jazz-tinged character study is elevated
by a cast delivering finely shaded performances.
Little-known Leo Woodall (he was Rami
Malek’s aide-de-camp in “Nuremberg”) plays Niki, a piano tuner working for a
company run by former jazz pianist Harry Horowitz, a nostalgic, talkative man
losing his fight against old age, portrayed with relish by Dustin Hoffman.
Niki, a one-time protégé, suffers from a hearing disability that makes loud
noises excruciating but also has perfect pitch.
Two things happen in the film: Niki falls
in love with a concert pianist (Havana Rose Liu) and, at the same time, joins
up with some unsavory characters to raise money when Harry is hospitalized.
Inevitably, these two intersect, disastrously.
In his small but crucial role, the 88-year-old
Hoffman, provides much of the film’s humor; it’s a wonderful snippet of what
made this two-time Oscar winner one of the premier actors of the 20th
Century.
Veteran TV, Broadway and film supporting
player Tovah Feldshuh makes the most of her role as Harry’s wife as does Jean
Reno as a famous composer.
Woodall, star of such recent streaming
series “Vladimir” and “Prime Target,” shows a screen presence even as a
soft-spoken introvert made cautious by his hearing problems.
The film is enhanced by numerous jazz
classics on the soundtrack, including Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” and “Cantaloupe
Island” (he also makes an appearance as himself) and Dave Brubecks “Unsquare
Dance.” In addition, a piece by another master pianist during the closing
credits offers a touching connection to an earlier moment in the film.
Director Daniel Roher, who won a 2022
Oscar for the powerful documentary “Navalny,” about a Russian dissident, and
directed the doc “Once Were Brothers” about The Band, and writing partner
Robert Ramsey, give Woodall, Hoffman and the other actors plenty of room to
breathe life into their characters. That’s what the best filmmakers do.
THE
INVITE (2026)
If you can endure the first hour of this
lightweight modernization of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” it does get
better. The script, based on a Spanish stage play and film, plays as if it was
written in the throes of marriage counseling, during which the disappointments
and quirks of two couples take center stage at a wine and cheese get-together.
Joe (Seth Rogen) is an unhappy music
professor (and failed musician) who comes home to his San Francisco apartment
to discover that his wife, Angela (Olivia Wilde, who also directs), has spent
the day preparing for a visit from the upstairs neighbors. Their over-wrought
bickering grows old within minutes but it goes on and on, as does the
overbearing cello solo on the soundtrack. All I could think about was why
Hollywood so often portrays adults as pitiful, dysfunctional failures.
Just as ridiculous is the way Angela acts when the neighbors, Piňa (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), arrive. They stand in the apartment uncomfortably while Angela flaps around nervously, apologizing for everything and making little sense. It’s as if she was channeling Jerry Lewis.
At
the same time, the older couple can’t hide their pretentiously hipness and
condescending attitude. No one seems happy to be there.
Hanging over the proceedings is Joe’s
desire to complain about Piňa and Hawk’s noisy lovemaking but before he can
deliver his gripe, they reveal that they have group sex with other couples.
Quickly, the tenor of the evening changes.
Director Wilde does a good job of maintain
the energy even though the film is set almost entirely in the couple’s
apartment, relying heavily on the dialogue. Partly by design of the script, but
also because of the screen presence of veteran actors Cruz and Norton, the
upstairs neighbors, whether serious or playing games, keep the picture from
sounding like a bad stage play.
Scripters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones
(Quincy’s daughter) adapted Cesc Gay’s play for Wilde, whose best film as a
director is “Booksmart” (2019), a smart, amusing movie about the unfairness of
high school. She’s been acting in films and TV since 2004.
.
While I winced at some of the dialogue and found little in any of the
characters to sympathize with, you have to give props to any film in 2026 that
takes on marriage and sex with a sense of humor.
THE
BRIDE! (2026)
If you didn’t get enough of the
“Frankenstein” story from Guillermo del Toro’s big-budget version last year,
actress-turned-director Maggie Gyllenhaal has concocted a story that turns the
monster and his female companion into an undead version of Bonnie and Clyde.
Starring two of Hollywood’s best
actors—last year’s Oscar winner Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale—the film seemed
destined to be a sure-fire hit. Instead, it was sunk by a script pieced
together from other Frankenstein pictures, Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” and
Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” and a performance by Buckley that wavers
between over-the-top silliness and incoherent insanity. As Frankenstein’s
monster, Bale disappears in the shadow of his bride’s uninhibited violence and
pointless rants.
The misguided plot, which I lost interest
in after about 20 minutes, starts with the monster showing up at the lab of a
scientist known for experimenting with re-animating the dead, Dr. Euphronious
(Annette Bening) and demanding a mate. Not sure why the story has been moved to
Depression-era Chicago (I guess the monster tired of roaming around the Arctic)
but once a murdered mobster’s mistress has been brought to life, Frankie and
Ida cause mayhem as they roam the country.
At one point, Frankie dances to “Puttin’ on
the Ritz” in a homage (I guess) to “Young Frankenstein.” There are dozens of
scenes that fall under the category of “this seems cool, right?” Gyllenhaal
clearly had no interest in making a coherent movie. If the time shifting isn’t
odd enough, we also get Mary Shelley (also Buckley, in ghostly closeup)
speaking from the grave for absolutely no reason.
The movie’s characters, like those in
almost every current TV streaming series, use the f-word more frequently and as
casually as a ship full of Marines. I have no doubt that the word is spoken
more times in this film than it was heard in Chicago the entire year of 1936. I
know it will come as a shock to contemporary screenwriters, but harsh profanity
was rarely heard in the first half of the 20th Century.
In the first decade of the century, Gyllenhaal
was among the finest American actresses, creating memorable characters in
“Donnie Darko” (2001), “Secretary” (2002), “Happy Endings’ (2005), “Sherrybaby”
(2006) and earning an Oscar nomination for “Crazy Heart” (2009). She hasn’t had
a lead role in a film since “The Kindergarten Teacher” (2018), but earned a
screenplay nomination for her feature directorial debut “The Lost Daughter”
(2021), a moving film about real women as opposed to the stitched together
version in her second effort.
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