Tag: Film Review

Disclosure Day (2026) | REVIEW

Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor look into each other’s eyes in Steven Spielberg’s DISCLOSURE DAY — PHOTO: Universal Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Steven Spielberg (Raiders of the Lost Ark; Schindler’s List) — Screenplay by David Koepp (Black Bag).

No one does major motion picture pop blockbusters quite like Steven Spielberg. The septuagenarian (soon-to-be octogenarian) star filmmaker is one of cinema history’s greatest science-fiction storytellers, having made science-fiction greats such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Minority Report, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. So, when it was announced that he would be returning to a cinematic genre, our understanding of which he has helped to sculpt, the ears of cinephiles around the world pricked up, their appetites were whetted, and their excitement built up. That new feature is Disclosure Day, a film that aims to grapple with the question of how we would all react to finding out that we are not alone in the universe. For the legendary director, it is thus a return to concepts that are definitely not alien to his oeuvre. While the new film is not without blemishes, it is nonetheless a strong genre effort that speaks to our current moment with a humanist spirit and plea. It also shows, for all to see, that Steven Spielberg still has what it takes to tap into the incredible sense of wonder with which he has become synonymous.

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Ladies First (2026) | REVIEW

Sacha Baron Cohen as Damian Sachs in Netflix’s LADIES FIRST — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Thea Sharrock — Screenplay by Natalie Krinsky, Cinco Paul, and Katie Silberman.

Thea Sharrock’s Ladies First is an English-language remake of Netflix’s 2018 French romantic-comedy Je ne suis pas un homme facile (international title: I Am Not An Easy Man) from director Éléonore Pourriat. The film follows Damien Sachs (played by Sacha Baron Cohen), a chauvinist high-ranking executive at an advertising agency, who gets recently promoted creative director Alex Fox (played by Rosamund Pike) to quit her job. She decides to leave when it becomes clear to her that he doesn’t care at all what she thinks and only promoted her for show. As Damien follows her out of their place of employment, he knocks himself out. He then wakes up in a world where positions of power have shifted into some kind of matriarchal society. To get back to his own world, Damien is told that he must rise through the ranks at the advertising agency, all the while overcoming the workplace and societal discrimination that women endure in the patriarchal society from which he originates.

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Marty Supreme (2025) | REVIEW

Timothée Chalamet as ‘Marty Mauser’ in Josh Safdie’s MARTY SUPREME — PHOTO: A24 (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Josh Safdie — Screenplay by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie.

The intensity and anxiety that the Safdie brothers tapped into when creating their breakthrough features Good Time and Uncut Gems is not easily replicated. The Safdies burst onto the scene with a clear sense of style, storytelling, and ability to foster great leading performances. They not only furthered the reputations of Robert Pattinson and Adam Sandler with those two equally electric films, but they also managed to have the anxieties of their films’ protagonists leap off the screen and affect their viewers. So, when the brothers — Benny and Josh — split up to pursue filmmaking careers as solo-directors, one of the big questions that their ‘break-up’ left you with was whether or not they, on their own, could recapture the same lightning-in-a-bottle concoction that they had successfully conjured into existence together. Josh Safdie’s first solo effort since their recent split is Marty Supreme, a critically acclaimed genre-blended sports film that earned the cast and crew recognition from awards bodies far and wide. But is the film actually as good as its reputation and the intense marketing that its leading man helped promote? Well, before I get into it later in my review, I’ll say this: it certainly packs a spark of energy, which I found to be quite effective. It’s certainly a unique sports film.

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Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) | REVIEW

Din Djarin, also known as ‘The Mandalorian,’ and Grogu get ready to take off in their spaceship in Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu — PHOTO: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Jon Favreau — Screenplay by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor.

Now, don’t get me wrong. For someone who, after the release of George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, once (and for a while there) was worried he would never get to see another movie set in that faraway galaxy, getting to see a new Star Wars movie in theaters is probably always going to feel like a treat. But I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever been looking forward to a live-action Star Wars theatrical release less than here with The Mandalorian and Grogu. This is coming from someone who has seen every single episode of the Disney+ show it spun off from, who loved the first two seasons of the series, and who enjoys the titular duo a great deal. But despite that and the seven-year wait between this and the last theatrically released Star Wars film (J. J. Abrams’ critically panned The Rise of Skywalker), and even though last year’s second season of Andor was a miracle of intelligent and political storytelling that rivals the best films in the franchise, something about this next big release just feels off. Maybe it’s just because of the disappointing third season of the show, but it could also be the ill-judged marketing campaign (what with the faux-beer commercial as their Super Bowl ad). I have long sensed that the main problem is that the studio and the storytellers have, through three seasons, trained audiences to expect these stories on a streaming service, and even though this is an expensive Star Wars story that you’re putting the next ‘chapter’ of on the big screen, it doesn’t change the fact that people are going to view this as a TV-movie because of its origin on the streaming service. Nevertheless, I was hopeful that this would still be an enjoyable moviegoing experience. Having now seen it, I can say that, as a fan of this universe and these characters, I enjoyed seeing them on another adventure fine enough, but I was largely underwhelmed by what I was presented with, and I am really concerned about what this film may mean for the future of the franchise.

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It Was Just An Accident (2025) | REVIEW

Vahid (played by Vahid Mobasseri) takes a break and a smoke while he contemplates what to do with a man he thinks was the one who ruined his life in IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT — PHOTO: NEON (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Jafar Panahi — Screenplay by Jafar Panahi.

For some, making art with something to say is a vocation that means risking your life if you decide to pursue it. Such is the case for renowned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Panahi, a veteran of the art form, has had a career that has seen him come into direct conflict with the Iranian government, which has, over the years, censored, detained, imprisoned, and punished him for making films that criticize the people in charge of the country, the politics of said government, and the effects of the system in place on Iranians. A former political prisoner who has been banned from making films in his home country, Panahi has frequently been supported by organizations, politicians, and filmmakers from all over the world, and he consistently tries to find loopholes to get around the extreme difficulty of being a filmmaker in a country that has no interest in seeing him make films. To make his Palme d’Or-winning and Oscar-nominated film It Was Just An Accident, he had to film in secret without a permit and be inventive with where and when to film so as not to be approached, arrested, or worse by authorities. As the accolades won by him attest, Panahi succeeded in making something worthwhile. I finally saw it earlier today, and I thought it was a fantastic film (and important text) made even more impressive by the difficulties he and his crew had to overcome to make it.

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Obsession (2026) | REVIEW

‘Bear’ (played by Michael Johnston) on the phone, while his eerily spellbound date, Nikki (played by Inde Navarrette), walks into the frame to look for him in Curry Barker’s OBSESSION — PHOTO: Focus Features / Universal Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) — Screenplay by Curry Barker.

One of the more interesting recent developments in the film industry is that certain online personalities — YouTubers and TikTokers — are being afforded the opportunity to become filmmakers. The primary example of this is arguably Danny and Michael Philippou, the Australian twins who went from YouTubers to significant horror filmmakers, and their films Talk To Me and Bring Her Back. But it doesn’t stop there. Last year, YouTube film critic-turned-filmmaker Chris Stuckmann had his feature debut, Shelby Oaks, released by Neon. Earlier this year, Mark ‘Markiplier’ Fischbach self-released an adaptation of an indie video game (Iron Lung), while it was announced that Seán ‘jacksepticeye’ McLoughlin would be a producer on an animated feature film adaptation of the video game Bloodborne. In fact, just a few weeks from now, the horror film Backrooms will be released, which was directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons, whose own project the film is based on. This modern wave of online personalities breaking through in the industry is fascinating, and another example of this new wave is Curry Barker, previously best known for his online sketch comedy duo, that’s a bad idea, with Cooper Tomlinson. After years of making short films and online skits to feature on YouTube and TikTok, he self-released his hour-long found-footage horror film, Milk & Serial, in 2024, the positive response to which likely landed him on the radar of many people in the industry. Just a year later, his second feature, Obsession, premiered to raves at the Toronto International Film Festival, and major industry companies like Blumhouse and Focus Features attached themselves to and acquired it. Now, Obsession is out in theaters all around the world. I just saw it last weekend, and I can say that it is not only Barker’s best and most ambitious project yet, but it’s a fantastic horror film with a jaw-droppingly good performance at its center.

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The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) | REVIEW

Motaz Malhees in THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB by Kaouther Ben Hania, courtesy of Mongrel Media.

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania — Screenplay by Kaouther Ben Hania.

Every once in a while, when you review films, you come across a film that is so emotionally powerful, raw, and important that it hits you like a sledgehammer right to your midsection. A film that is so overwhelming, urgent, timely, and important that you simply must review it, but which, at the same time, features elements that make it difficult to write a conventional review for it. The Voice of Hind Rajab is that kind of film. This is a film about something horrifying that really happened as recently as 2024. It is a film that makes bold choices that perhaps won’t sit well with some viewers, but whose bold and perhaps controversial choices must be included to live up to the spirit of the project. As a film, it dances on the line between documentary and a more conventional narrative feature as a docudrama that packs an emotional wallop. I think it is fair to say that there will be many people who, after they see this film, will never be the same.

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Shelby Oaks (2025) | REVIEW

Camille Sullivan in SHELBY OAKS — PHOTO: Neon (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Chris Stuckmann — Screenplay by Chris Stuckmann.

I don’t think it was possible to frequent YouTube in the 2010s as a film fan without eventually running into a film review uploaded by Chris Stuckmann. Stuckmann earned himself a loyal following over the years and became one of the premier YouTube film critics until the early 2020s, at which point he admitted to wanting to focus on filmmaking. He stated that he felt it wouldn’t be right for him to speak negatively about projects going forward if he wanted to break into the industry. Although his channel still posts videos wherein he talks about new releases, this change in approach has led to a litany of videos scolding him for his decision-making. But, at the same time, Stuckmann did get his wish, as his feature debut as a filmmaker, Shelby Oaks, was released theatrically in North America in 2025. This was notably after Neon picked the film up for distribution and prominent horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan attached himself to the project as an executive producer. I finally got the chance to see Stuckmann’s first film as a writer-director yesterday, and, well, while I thought it was nice to see Stuckmann’s dream come true, the film didn’t do much for me.

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Apex (2026) | REVIEW

Trailer title card — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest; Beast) — Screenplay by Jeremy Robbins.

Baltasar Kormákur’s Apex is a straight-to-streaming Netflix survival thriller that follows Sasha (played by Charlize Theron), a rock climber who lost her partner, Tommy (played by Eric Bana), in a rock-climbing accident. Some time later, Sasha finds herself in the wilderness of Australia, where she encounters Ben (played by Taron Egerton), a stranger who knows the surroundings like the back of his hand. After he intervenes and helps Sasha from a possible confrontation with two strange hunters, Ben gives Sasha two routes to her desired location, and she chooses the harder one. After kayaking, she sleeps in the wilderness and awakes to see that some of her things have been stolen. She makes her way to Ben’s camp, eventually, and he gives her the supplies she needs. But here she learns that his intentions aren’t good. He takes out a crossbow and gives her a chance to run for her escape, as he now intends to hunt her.

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War Machine (2026) | REVIEW

Trailer title card — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Patrick Hughes — Screenplay by Patrick Hughes.

It is so strange that one of the biggest Netflix releases in the first half of the year is titled War Machine. Now, you might be thinking that you don’t really see how that is odd or particularly significant. But if you, like me, have paid attention to Netflix’s releases over the years, since they became a major streaming service, then you would know that one of the first major Netflix film acquisitions was that of David Michôd’s War Machine, a satirical war film starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Ben Kingsley, and others. That 2017 release was a largely forgettable flick that is probably rarely seen these days, as it is likely lost in the vast Netflix library by now, but you would think that Netflix wouldn’t want to create confusion about two of their own releases. Although the 2017 release was a satirical war film and the 2026 flick is more at home alongside other sci-fi action films like it, the title isn’t the only thing these two movies have in common, as they’re both, in one way or another, related to America’s presence in Afghanistan. So, as you might be asking yourself, which is the better film at the end of the day? At the end of the day, I’m not sure one is drastically better than the other.

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