Hollywood's Magical Summer and My Favourite Film of 2026 (so far)

Hollywood is having its best summer since before Covid. This wouldn’t normally attract my attention, since relatively few of my favourite films of any given year come out of Hollywood, but I’ve watched six major Hollywood films this summer (ouch!). One of them is my favourite film of the year so far (wow!) and another is likely to make my favourite list.

PART 1

No, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which I had the opportunity to watch in an IMAX theatre in Winnipeg on opening weekend, is neither of those. I do think The Odyssey is an excellent and entertaining film. The cinematography, the non-CGI special effects, the sound, many of the performances and much of the dialogue impressed me. My favourite scenes include Circe (what a performance by Samantha Morton!), Hades (Elliot Page doesn’t get much screen time, but his scene in Hades is one of the highlights of the film) and the confession of Odysseus (Matt Damon) in which he laments his role in the fall of Troy, breaking Zeus’s law of hospitality to strangers with his Trojan Horse ruse.

Before I get to the heart of my review, I will just note that, among the male actors (female actors will be highlighted below), I was particularly impressed by John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson. Tom Holland did well enough as Telemachus but was better in the summer’s biggest blockbuster.

Despite being universally acclaimed and hugely popular, The Odyssey was met with a fair amount of controversy, especially when Emily Wilson, whose translation of Homer’s epic poem was used by Nolan, wrote a scathing review (though she also thought much of the film was excellent). It’s true that Nolan isn’t always faithful to the text and his Odysseus is not a faithful representation of the story’s hero. I can understand why some people might be disappointed with this misrepresentation. But I personally don’t require filmmakers to be accurate in their adaptations, especially if we’re dealing with a work of fiction, so this isn’t one of the factors that keeps me from awarding The Odyssey four stars and a place among my favourite films of the year.

The Odyssey is an amazing film to watch in an IMAX theatre and it has important things to say to us, and to our leaders, about the times we live in (e.g. how our leaders treat the ‘strangers’ among us). This is one of the things that most impressed me about the film and it’s at least partially the result of Nolan’s rewriting of the story. I can only applaud him for that. And yet what keeps The Odyssey from a four-star rating are the ongoing problems I have with Nolan as a filmmaker. I identified two of these in my review of Oppenheimer (my favourite Nolan film), a film that did get four stars from me in spite of the problems, thanks to the flawless performances and the fact that it’s a true story. 

One problem I have with Nolan is how he treats the female characters in his films. Women have a number of key roles in The Odyssey and they are played by excellent actors like Morton, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway and Lupita Nyong’o. But none of the characters they play receive adequate character development, which is typical of female characters in all of Nolan’s films. I thought Theron and Nyong’o were wasted in this film (the scenes between Odysseus and Calypso didn’t work for me), while Zendaya (Athena) and Hathaway (Penelope) deserved more to work with.

The biggest problem, however, is that The Odyssey, like previous Nolan films, failed to engage me emotionally. This was particularly noticeable in my inability to engage with the protagonist. Damon’s acting is solid enough but the only times I found myself connecting with Odysseus were during the favourite scenes mentioned above. Oppenheimer also failed at this, even with the magnificent performance by Cillian Murphy. I can sense that Nolan is trying hard to make a connection and the pieces seem to be there (we are often given a clear sense of what is going on in Oppenheimer’s tortured mind, and in the tortured mind of Odysseus), but something is always missing for me (something that’s usually present in my favourite films of any given year). I’m at a loss to identify the precise reason for my lack of emotional engagement with The Odyssey other than to say it's too dry. Add to this the slaughter scene near the end of the film, which makes no sense in light of Odysseus’s confession but must be tolerated because it’s in Homer’s text, and there’s no chance for four stars. Nevertheless, a solid ***+.

PART 2

My favourite film of the year so far is also NOT the other summer blockbuster featuring real-life couple Tom Holland and Zendaya, though Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the most pleasant surprise of the summer. Spider-Man is second only to Batman as a superhero I like to watch. Some Spider-Man films have made it into my top ten (even number one). Others, like Spider-Man: No Way Home, the most recent Spider-Man film and the third in which Spidey is played by Holland, came close, but the relentless superhero action kept it (and most superhero films) from getting four stars from me. Holland is an excellent Spider-Man and all of the acting in Brand New Day is solid (both Holland and Zendaya are much better here than in The Odyssey). The cinematography is extraordinary, making full use of the New York City setting (the city plays a central role in the film). And the writing is stronger and smarter than in most Marvel films.

There are two key elements in Brand New Day that make the storytelling exceptional. The first is the overarching theme of social isolation. Very early in the film, Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) tells Spider-Man (let’s call him Peter) that he’s in need of human connection. Not long after that, fellow superhero Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) tells Peter he is sad and lonely. Peter is indeed desperately lonely and pining after MJ (Zendaya), the love of his life whose memories of Peter have been erased to protect her. Much of the film is infused with a sense of melancholy because of Peter’s loneliness, which is so profound that it causes dangerous changes in his spider DNA, requiring him to build (with MJ’s help) an inhibitor to control them. Not surprisingly, the inhibitor becomes central to the plot because it can also control the abilities of other superheroes (and supervillains).

Peter’s loneliness and his need to get his old friends back into his life, or at least to make some new friends, is a theme that runs through the entire length of this long film. At a time in our history in which social isolation has become an epidemic (especially since the pandemic), Brand New Day offers hope and encouragement, not just for the countless ordinary people who struggle with loneliness but especially for people on the fringes, outsiders (like superheroes) who feel that friendship isn’t possible for them.

If Brand New Day gave us only Peter’s struggle and the ups and downs related to it, that would be enough for me to appreciate this key theme. But it gives us so much more, lifting it into that magic place where my emotional engagement far exceeds anything offered by The Odyssey. That’s because Peter isn’t the only ‘superhero’ in Brand New Day struggling with loneliness (spoiler alert!). We also have Frank (The Punisher, played well by Jon Bernthal) and Jean Grey (a perfectly-cast Sadie Sink). These characters start the film as villains of a sort (or at least antiheroes) and both of them are at least as sad and lonely as Peter. They both attempt to fight Spider-Man but eventually make a profound transformative connection with him, a connection that made me cry far more than Peter reuniting with MJ (which I also enjoyed). This is the second element that made the storytelling exceptional: the redemption of various characters instead of the redemptive violence which is so prevalent in superhero films (in fairness, most Spider-Man films have a great track record with this).

The writers of this exceptional story are Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and it was Destin Daniel Cretton doing a great job at the helm. I also need to mention Mark Ruffalo’s important role as Bruce Banner (Hulk) and highlight Marisa Tomei’s brief but vital role as Aunt May, who reminds Peter (and Jean) that he is loved for being himself not for being special. Great stuff. Worthy of at least ***+ to **** (if it wasn’t for some unnecessary and boring action scenes, I would be giving it four stars).

PART 3

And now we come to my favourite film of the year so far, which for some reason doesn’t feature either Tom Holland or Zendaya (though Zendaya will be back for another Hollywood blockbuster in December which is surely destined for my favourite list). Instead we have an amazing Emily Blunt and the always-brilliant Josh O’Connor, aided by the eminently-watchable Colin Firth, the magnetic Eve Hewson and the extraordinary Colman Domingo. We do, like in the other two films, have too much action, but this film goes even further than Brand New Day in overcoming that flaw. Because, also like the other two films, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day wants to say something to our troubled times and he does so in a way that is pure movie magic (Spielberg is good at that). 

Before I write about Disclosure Day, let me just emphasize how remarkable it is that these three Hollywood blockbusters find it necessary to speak to the issues of our time. When I think about the millions of people who have watched and will watch these three films, I’m reminded again of the power of film to help make the world a better place. And yet so many film critics fail to acknowledge this. Indeed, if they mention it at all they call it ‘too sentimental and/or optimistic for our cynical times’. Very sad. These films are precisely what is needed to counter our cynical times. 

Since Disclosure Day was released in June, I’m assuming most people have had a chance to watch it, so there will be spoilers (if you haven’t seen it, it’s available for rent online; watch it before reading further). 

O’Connor plays Dr. Daniel Kellner, a cybersecurity specialist in the Wardex Corporation who has access to evidence of aliens visiting Earth and risks his life to get that evidence out into the world because he’s convinced everyone has a right to know the truth. This whistleblowing adventure and how it unfolds may involve too much action, but it’s enough on its own to put this incredible film into my top ten of the year (IMO whistleblowers are the heroes of our time). But we’re just getting started. Blunt (whose performance is sublime) plays Margaret Fairchild, a TV meteorologist who is confronted by a cardinal on her kitchen table and is suddenly able to speak and understand other languages. She’s also able to look into another person’s eyes, know what that person is struggling with deep inside and make the perfect response. It’s a beautifully-portrayed way of conveying our society’s desperate need for empathy and I couldn’t stop crying. 

Then there’s Firth as Noah Scanlon, the head of Wardex, which is trying to keep the evidence of aliens under wraps. He’s a rather nasty villain but (major spoiler alert!) he’s won over by empathy and love, and no villains are hurt in this thriller. What a challenge to the myth of redemptive violence! More tears.

I could say a lot more about the wonders of Disclosure Day (including the wonderful sense of wonder), but just want to highlight two scenes: 1) a conversation between Domingo’s character (Hugo Wakefield, another Wardex employee) and Scanlon in which Wakefield describes empathy as the core of animate existence (my favourite scene of the year); and 2) the final scene of the film and the final word: “Listen!” This is Spielberg making a direct plea to viewers to listen. Listen to each other (we don’t need the ‘gift’ to empathize)! Listen to the truth that is out there instead of listening to the powers-that-be covering up that truth (no, I’m not talking about aliens; I’m talking climate change, poverty, genocide, democracy, billionaires, etc.). 

Disclosure Day is profoundly humanizing, refreshingly optimistic, breathtakingly original and all about making the world a better place. Add in some of the best actors of our time and perhaps the greatest filmmaker of all time and you have, in my opinion, a consummate masterpiece. Everyone on the planet needs to watch this film! An easy **** and an almost-certain number-one film of the year for me (though I’m about to head off to Halifax for the Atlantic International Film Festival, followed immediately by the Edmonton International Film Festival - 40 films in 18 days, so who knows; it’s been a great film year already).