June Movies Part 2: Toy Story 5 & Disclosure Day

It's summer and all the blockbusters are hitting the theaters. I had surgery on June 10th, but I willed myself to recover quickly so I could walk over to the theater and check out the following movies. If that's not dedication, I don't know what is!

Toy Story 5: Pixar's back baby! I'm on the record as having loved Toy Story 4 (long live Forky), and it was hilarious to re-read my review from 2019 where I declared this was the final installment in the Toy Story franchise. Such naivete. But boy am I glad that director Andrew Stanton, who co-wrote the screenplay with Kenna Harris, has given us this fifth installment. It serves as a much-needed commentary on what technology has done to our lives and is wondrous.

Instead of Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) being the leads, this movie features Jessie (Joan Cusack) as the lead Toy instead. She is desperately trying to help the little girl Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) make some friends, but this is proving to be a challenge. All the other children in the neighborhood seem to have gotten tablets and other electronic devices, and they no longer just want to play with toys and each other - they're too mesmerized by their screens. Increasingly concerned about their child, Bonnie's parents cave and buy her a LilyPad tablet (voiced by Greta Lee), hoping that will help her fit in more with her peers. And initially, this seems like a great idea - Lilypad "friends" kids from her dance group online, and this seems to offer up opportunities for more in-person interaction. But what's the point of in-person interaction if you're all just sitting on the couch staring at your screens? 

Is the story a little heavy-handed? Sure. Does that make it any less true? Nope. It's inventive, playful, insightful, and a little emotional, like all the best Pixar films. And as an avowed Conan O'Brien fan, I was delighted by his character of Smarty Pants, a potty-training device that ends up being very useful to help resolve some of the dilemmas Jessie and the other toys find themselves in over the course of the movie. This movie is remarkably even-keeled - it's not encouraging us all to be Luddites, but it's certainly advocating for a far more judicious application of technology. As I sit here on my laptop with my phone to the side, I'll certainly try to take its lessons to heart. I fear it may be too late for us all, but at least put your devices down for two hours and go watch this movie! 

Disclosure Day: Steven Spielberg's back baby! With a screenplay by David Koepp, the veteran director is here to present us with an engaging sci-fi movie about a secret government corporation led by a man named Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) that is trying to hide the truth of extraterrestrial life from the rest of the human race, and the resistance that is on the run with all the evidence that they want to make public. 

Josh O' Connor plays Daniel, a man who used to work for the evil corporation, but has now defected with the help of a fellow-absconding colleague, Hugo (Colman Domingo). Daniel now has to figure out how he's going to release this information while keeping his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), safe from the evil overlords, who are using her as a pawn to get to him. Meanwhile, Emily Blunt plays Margaret, a Kansas City weatherwoman who suddenly wakes up speaking myriad languages and has the ability to immediately know what another person is going through and speak to their deepest secrets and vulnerabilities. She has no idea what's going on, but she knows that evil people are after her, so she goes on the run until Hugo reaches out and tells her how to connect with Daniel. Will our heroes meet up? And will they be able to make their grand disclosure? Not much of a spoiler alert: yes, yes, they will.

This is the type of movie where the journey is the destination. There are some brilliant action sequences, but there's also a lot of dialogue where people have to explain all the complexities of what's going on. What elevates this from a mid-tier slog to a top-tier blockbuster, is Blunt's performance. She is absolutely magnetic on screen and that charisma cannot be denied. I will be furious if this woman doesn't get an Oscar nomination for this performance, because despite all the great actors in this movie, she is single-handedly carrying this film on her back and giving it all the heart and depth it needs to avoid becoming just another generic piece of science fiction.

This is also an extremely Spielbergian film. Bless him, but the man is still living in an age of optimism, and his aliens are as humanoid and old school as possible. Watch this film if you want to feel really nostalgic and hopeful. There's no room for cynicism on Disclosure Day!