Film 2485 - Disclosure Day

Intro: Not that I was dying to see this film... but when Steven Spielberg has a new one out, you can't really miss it, or what kind of cinema fanatic are you really?!

Film 2485: "Disclosure Day" (2026), Steven Spielberg
Watched: At the movies
Language: English
Watched with: No one
Thoughts: Oh boy.
I wasn't expecting this movie to be groundbreaking or a masterpiece, but I certainly didn't anticipate just how bored I'd be while watching it. I went by myself, so I was very much focused and present, and I definitely struggled to stay awake during some scenes. Especially at the beginning, when no one really knows what's going on, the story takes so long to actually get going that you begin to wonder what the point of it all really is. And, to be fair, that question still stands.
What I mean is that "Disclosure Day" doesn't seem to know what kind of movie it'd like to be, as it combines so many different elements from different genres: thriller, alien invasion, mystery, action, espionage, sci-fi, and... religious?! The mix is at times so random that it's really hard to take the story seriously. I appreciate the effort to go for something different and not just the seen-it-before alien invasion bit, but I'm not sure venturing into religious territory was the right choice (I'm referring to the moment where Emily Blunt's character reads one person's mind and says something along the lines of, "I don't want to be your religion." I legitimately laughed at that scene).
It's not just this, though. The alien aspect was quite disappointing in the end. Especially the big reveal where Blunt and the alien talk... I don't know, it really ruined the ending for me. I thought there was no need to show the alien, story-wise, and the visual effects really don't deliver. The end result just looks cheap and unconvincing. Speaking of visual effects, I also don't think they were very good throughout the whole film. For a movie that cost $115 million to make—and God knows how much to promote—the end result isn't up to par. The animals, especially, don't look believable and, look, nobody went to the cinema expecting this one to deliver a realistic take on possible human-alien contact, but the overall lack of believability takes you out of the story at times.
Last but not least, I think the story is way too overcrowded. Not just with different narrative elements or plot points, but with characters as well. Too many story arcs to complete, too many side stories we don't really care about. Rarely have I seen a character so obviously utilized as a plot tool as the boyfriend, played by Wyatt Russell: remove him from the story and literally nothing changes.
Anyway, I don't want to only shit on this movie, so here's a short list of the elements I appreciated:

• Emily Blunt as a leading lady. I love her. She's clearly talented and can carry a movie on her shoulders with no problem. Her face does look strange, though.
• Steven Spielberg is still a great director. The car chase scene was really good.
• I'm glad to see Josh O'Connor making a splash in Hollywood. He's handsome and so talented, and hopefully he'll stop queerbaiting us in allegedly gay movie romances and either go all in or stop edging us.
• The newsroom setting was interesting, although underdeveloped. I wish they'd explored that a bit more rather than all the government nonsense and the boyfriend crap.

All in all, "Disclosure Day" was unfortunately worse than I expected. Maybe a shorter, less crowded edit of this story would have worked better. And there was no need to show us the aliens: once you materialize on screen the one element your story has asked the audience to imagine, the fantasy is ruined.
Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, Elizabeth Marvel, Colman Domingo.
Box Office: $239.8 million
Worth a watch?: For Spielberg fans. It's not awful, but it is a confused story filled with too many elements that weaken the overall message. One of the biggest disappointments of 2026 for me.
Awards: /
Key word: Cardinal.
Trailer
#HollywoodCiak
Bengi

Film 1985 - News of the World

Intro: Appena ho visto comparire questa pellicola su Netflix ho deciso di vederla. Il che, senza volerlo, è stato utile perché un paio di settimane dopo il prof di Sceneggiatura ci ha chiesto di recuperare questo titolo per la consueta discussione settimanale in classe.

Film 1985: "News of the World" (1989) di Paul Greengrass
Visto: dal computer portatile
Lingua: inglese, Kiowa
Compagnia: nessuno
In sintesi: devo ammettere che, pur non essendo un grande fan del genere western, ho molto gradito la visione di questo "News of the World", un prodotto di qualità che vive di due egregi pratoginisti che portano sulle loro spalle tutta la storia (tratta dall'omonimo romanzo di Paulette Jiles).
In particolare, credo che Tom Hanks dimostri qui e per l'ennesima volta la sua versatilità di attore, capace di risultare credibile in qualsiasi contesto lo si faccia recitare. In altri termini, credo sia uno di questi pochi attori capaci sempre di regalare quel qualcosa in più al film di cui sono protagonisti per il semplice fatto della loro presenza e bravura. Con questo non voglio dire che Hanks sia sempre all'altezza delle aspettative - il suo "Larry Crowne" è assolutmente dimenticabile e certi copioni che sceglie lasciano sicuramente perplessi, per esempio "Inferno", "The Circle" o "Cloud Atlas" - ma credo gli vada riconosciuta quella star quality che non tutti, nemmeno certi colleghi di Hollywood, hanno.
Qui in buona compagnia, Hanks si ritrova affiancato dalla 12enne tedesca Helena Zengel che, bisogna ammettere, fa uno spettacolare lavoro nei panni Johanna, ragazzina rapita da infante da un gruppo di nativi americani e poi cresciuta secondo i loro costumi che, al momento in cui viene trovata dal capitano Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks), non sa parlare inglese e cerca in tutti i modi di ritornare dalla sua tribù. Il viaggio che i due intraprenderanno sarà alla volta della vera famiglia di Johanna - o quello che ne è rimasto - per riconsegnare la giovane alla sua vecchia vita anche se, sul cammino, i due protagonisti dovranno affrontare una serie di difficoltà che li porteranno a costruire un legame speciale che, ammetto, è stato un piacere veder rappresentato in questa storia.
Come sempre, qualche appunto che ho trascritto per il corso:

Captain Kidd is the protagonist. At the beginning of this story he is mainly focused on his job (reading newspapers from town to town), which requires him to travel a lot and eventually put him on Johanna's path. 

Becuse of their meeting, his main goal switches as he now wants/has to bring the girl back to her family. When that goal is fulfilled, Kidd's goal changes again, as he decides to go back home and deal with his wife's death. This one is probably a broader story arc that the screenplay wants to explore from the very beginning and the encounter with Johanna is instrumental in pointing him to going back home.

Once he dealt with his past, he's free to move forward and embrace his new goal, which is to go back, free Johanna from her family and start a new life together as a sort of family of thier own. Because of this ending, we can say that Kidd's overall main goal was to make peace with his past and being able to move forward.

The main obstacles presented during the story are: the former Confederate soldiers that want to buy Johanna; people who try to kill or put them in danger during the story; Johanna's surviving family members; in a sense, Kidd himself, as initially he's not pleased he has to bring the girl back to her family.

Cast: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Michael Covino, Fred Hechinger, Neil Sandilands, Thomas Francis Murphy, Ray McKinnon, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth Marvel.
Box Office: $12.6 milioni
Vale o non vale: Non una pellicola per tutte le occasioni, ma sicuramente un prodotto solito che dovrebbe lasciare i fan dei western (in chiave moderna) soddisfatti quanto gli ammiratori di Hanks. Il film ha varie anime e, per molteplici ragioni, ricorda altre pellicole simili ("The Missing", "Appaloosa", "Il Grinta" e tanti altri), anche se la presenza della brava Helena Zengel qui fa la differenza. Da vedere.
Premi: Candidato a 4 Oscar e 4 BAFTA per Miglior sonoro, fotografia, colonna sonora e scenografie. Candidato a 2 Golden Globe per la Miglior attrice non protagonista (Zengel) e Miglior colonna sonora.
Parola chiave: Viaggio.
Trailer
#HollywoodCiak
Bengi