Disclosure Day (2026)

I have to take a moment to appreciate that it's 2026 and we're getting a new original Spielberg sci-fi epic with possibly one of the last original scores by John Williams. These days feel numbered. Spielberg has been obsessed with extraterrestrials his entire career. It feels like he's completing a cycle here that began nearly 50 years ago with Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In many ways, he's been working towards this film his entire life. The scale is smaller and more intimate, but the implications are timeless. We've all grown so cynical in this day and age, yet I admire how he makes magic and wonder seem possible again in the world, even if it only exists on the silver screen.

3½ cardinals out of 5

The Mastermind (2025)

The world's dumbest criminal concocts a half-baked plan to rob an art museum and must deal with the aftermath when things don't go quite as planned. For those familiar with Kelly Reichardt's methodically slow, minimalist style, this ironically serves as an anti-heist movie, focusing more on the banality than the crime itself. I have to admit, this was a very frustrating watch, witnessing its incompetence unfolding at a languishing pace. It gave me a tummy ache.

2½ stolen paintings out of 5

Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

The third in the Knives Out series surrounds a murder in the ranks of a parish when a young priest butts heads with the thorny Monsignor. It's a locked-room ("impossible crime") mystery where Benoit Blanc attempts to prove innocence and clear their name. Daniel Craig settles into the role like an old comfortable shoe, while the film itself feels tonally different from the rest, but it's very much worth a spin in all of its complexity and density. I hope Rian Johnson keeps making these films forever because he has a real knack for the genre.

3½ roads to Damascus out of 5

Challengers (2024)

Challengers, aka "that tennis threesome movie," tells the story of a tennis prodigy (Zendaya) and her back-and-forth relationship between two competitive players who volley for her affections over the course of a 13-year period. The material is directed with kinetic style and grace by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) along a thumping techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. This film is certainly competent and an entertaining piece of escapism, but it fails to elicit the kind of response from me that it seems to have had on the culture at large. It's good, but let's not get too crazy.

3 wild cards out of 5