Toy Story 5 (2026)

It very much feels like the Toy Story movies are repeating themselves. After the original trilogy which very effectively made the case for a story about kids growing past the influences of their youth and the need to move on, we are now ironically stuck in a pattern of that message being recycled over and over. 5 adds something fresh with a slightly nuanced take on tech's influence on children, but doesn't go any further beyond this point than 4 did. Still Toy Story 5 still have the mojo to be entertaining enough for fans and general audiences alike to have a good time. I'm just not sure it's kept all the mojo for these films to be as iconic as they used to be. 

So while the rather saccharine story of children needing to find connection mixed with the standard they-can't-stay-kids-forever theme played out there were a few things that stood out for me as why Pixar still does Hollywood animated features better than the competitors generally. For one I want to shout out to Cusack who's voice performance truly stood out. She remains a talented actor and her Jesse is one of her most iconic rolls. Here she is not only given a lot to work with but she truly steps up and gives a heart-wrenching turn in what may be her best work yet. It's easy to dismiss voiceover performances but when they are good they can be really good and I'd argue her work here is tremendous. 

I also appreciated that the film didn't just do the easy thing of jumping on the screen-time-is-bad-for-kids bandwagon and tried to present a somewhat more complex presentation of how technology is integrating into children's lives. Sure a major media company has an interest in not telling too negative a tech story but still, it could has just pandered to the suburban moms a bit more and doesn't quite fall into that trap. 

More points to them for finding generally organic ways to fit in the franchise's growing cast of characters. The film centres Jesse even more than before giving Woody and Buzz a more backseat role which is also brave in this age of internet rage at anything that doesn't centre white males. 

So for me Toy Story 5 was a bit of a mixed bag that was mostly enjoyable if still on the rather sleight side. I'd argue 1-3 of this series truly hold up and hold a special place in cinema's canon so perhaps it is just too much to expect that level of film making to continue long term. At least the films haven't yet become intolerably reductive or, worst of all, unenjoyable. This is still a fun movie. It just won't have the hold that previous instalments have managed to.

Toy Story 5

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Greta Lee, Conan O'Brien, Tony Hale, Craig Robinson, Shelby Rabara, Scarlett Spears, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Matty Matheson, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Blake Clark, Jeff Bergman, Anna Vocino, Annie Potts, Bonnie Hunt, Melissa Villaseñor, John Hopkins, Kristen Schaal, Ernie Hudson, Bad Bunny, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Alan Cumming

Director: Andrew Stanton

Writers: Kenna Harris, Andrew Stanton

Leviticus (2026)

"They want us to be afraid."

This line from the clever and frightening Leviticus captures a concept that queer people know inherently. The heterosexist world wants queer people to be afraid to be themselves and to experience the joy of love and sex as we experience it. This is what is behind the story of Leviticus, where a monster of some sort (which remains ever present but invisible - just like homophobia) is designed to make us terrified of the thing that brings us joy and fulfillment. We are to be constantly in fear. 

Leviticus makes good use of this simple yet brilliant idea to craft a film that is scary, both in moments and in its overall haunting aura, but also moving in how this terror affects the peope it inflicts. Perhaps it is one of the most salient attempts on screen to communicate the way homophobia feels to those who don't personally experience it. 

Unlike some other recent horror films which perhaps stray from their clever conceits to pack in more traditional scary monster movie moments, Leviticus sticks to its script and lets the horror come from its situation instead of from being demonic. There are some "scary" scenes with a jump scare or physical attack, but the film mostly stays away from them or puts them off screen so that we are left with more of an aching sense of dread, wondering when the shoe will drop. The more I reflect on this, the more I see just how much this feels like living gay in a mandatory-straight world. 

Bird and Clausen are wonderful together, both playing the loves and the terrors of the other. And there is a quiet beauty to the ending which finds the way to defeat this horror is to come together, to be together. The very thing this monster is trying to stop us from doing. 

Leviticus 

Starring: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Mia Wasikowska 

Writer/Director: Adrian Chiarella

The Death of Robin Hood (2026)

Sarnoski has made a contemplative Robin Hood movie that is without action set pieces, eschews glorifying righteous violence, and questions our ideas of heroism. This isn't what were used to in a film about famous action heroes. But it is a gorgeous film that is full of weight and power and continues Jackman's recent streak of picking quite interesting projects. 

The marketing has leaned into what this film is. From the outset the film tells us (like the trailers and posters) that Robin Hood isn't a hero. We are given a lot of violence in the first act and most of it is brutal and isn't something we're rooting for. It isn't framed in the way these stories usually frame it with the good guy overcoming the bad guy. It is presented as morally ambiguous and Jackman's character is taking little to no pleasure in it, making it hard for us to 

Then the rest of the move settles into a story of regret and atonement. It asks us to think about how legends are told and how little fact there is behind what we tell ourselves. Much of The Death of Robin Hood is rooted in how we convince ourselves to do the terrible things we do, or to cheer for those terrible things, and then how we must reckon with that. I found this fascinating even when the story took a little too long. The pacing struggled but the film remained powerfully engaging.

Jackman is good here, not overdoing it, but embodying the character well. Overall the cast is strong overcoming the challenges of an action movie with no action, and delivering a story that will give its audience something to sit with. 

The Death of Robin Hood

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, Faith Delanye, Bill Skarsgård, Murray Bartlett, Noah Jupe

Writer/Director: Michael Sarnoski

Disclosure Day (2026)

Much has been made of legendary director Steven Spielberg's so-called return-to-form with Disclosure Day. Most of us associate him with his biggest films, tentpole genre films like Jaws, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, and of coarse E.T., films which remain some of the best genre films of all time. But his filmography is honestly far more diverse with the last 20 years seeing him tackle Lincoln, The BFG, a remake of West Side Story, The Fabelmans, and The Post. While these films are very well regarded, they don't really hold the popular imagination in the way his genre films do. You have to go back to Savings Private Ryan or Schindler's List to find one of his drama films that captured the zeitgeist in the way his fantastic films have. But it really hasn't been that long since he made Ready Player One. He's always experimented with different forms. He is a story teller after all... and a very good one. 

But there is something about Disclosure Day that feels more "Spielbergian" (if I can call it that) than a lot of his more recent work. There is a hopeful energy and a sense of wonder thrown in amongst a timeless sense of adventure. There are characters we latch on to, seeing ourselves in them. And there is a magic that few others are able to convey in the way he does. Disclosure Day does all that but perhaps in a different way than in his other famous "flying saucer" movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His look here feels far more like someone looking through eyes of deep experience than with a new sense of awe. 

Like that film, Disclosure Day is actually far more about humanity than it is about aliens. It asks us to reflect on who we are and what we are hopeful for. It asks us about our obligations to each other. The aliens are just a catalyst for us to look at who we are as human beings. Spielberg doesn't give us answers as much as he lets us sit with questions. Similarly he doesn't hold our hands as he tells us his story. He drops us into the events and lets those events unfold gradually giving us more of an awakening to what is happening. He lets us sit with the mystery a bit. He has always thread religion and spirituality through his films and never does so in a preachy way. Instead it is that question of mystery which is so fascinating to him. Here it is more than just subtext. It is full on text. He is letting us wrestle with robust and complicated questions and lets his story play out without giving us a play by play. 

The film, while more thoughtful that most "alien contact" movies, still manages to be packed with adventure set pieces, many of which are top notch. They fit organically into the larger narrative he is trying to tell while also giving us a reason for our pulses to race. But for me, honestly, more than the train scene or car chases, it is the film's rather cerebral and emotional climax which really gives the thrills. I was surprised at how moving I found it and much of this had to do with Spielberg's narrative choices.

John Williams is back from retirement with another score for Spielberg, perhaps not as iconic as some of his work, which rank amongst the greatest film scores of all time, but a truely beautiful and accomplished work. If this is his final big screen full score effort it would be a fitting cap on a legendary career. 

Disclosure Day is a strong film in so many ways and a real encapsulation of what makes Spielberg regarded as the film maker he is. Only time will tell how this fits into his filmography but for me it is a reminder of his power as a storyteller who knows how to capture our imagination. 

Disclosure Day

Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writer: David Koepp 

The Furious (2026)

The Furious is a good old fashioned Hong Kong martial arts action movie. Reminiscent of Indonesian film The Raid (especially because it features Ruhian), The Furious has a solid (if thin) story that has a big heart at its core and is enough to string together the electric set pieces. Perhaps it is guilty of some of the genre's excesses (people who should long be dead or incapacitated get up and keep fighting again and again - the script often feels rather elementary) but it grabs you and doesn't let go for a solid 113 minutes offering a satisfying time.

You got to hand it to these film makers. They know how to leave it all on the screen. The final fight sequences is epic, perhaps a bit excessive, but will be remembered as a core of the genre. The cinematography and choreography are top level. You'll be sweating at the end. 

One of the things I loved about The Furious is how it handles its subject. This is a film about child trafficking but instead of wallowing in the gore porn that it could have it keeps all that off screen, suggested, to instead focus on the action. It helps reminds us that yes these are very bad people our heroes are beating up, but also we aren't going to take any sick pleasure from that. 

The Furious is a damn good action film that reminds you why going to the movies is so damn fun. 

The Furious

Starring:Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, Yang Enyou

Director: Kenji Tanigaki

Writers: Mak Tin-shu, Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan-sin, Frank Hui

Power Ballad (2026)

Carney makes movies about loving and making music. With Power Ballad he focuses on the nebulous relationship surrounding the "ownership" of music, in the specific context of what constitutes writing a song? Power Ballad muses on this question in interesting ways, surprisingly not offering us too easy an answer making this a far more intriguing story that I had anticipated. Presented as a simple moral question, the film actually goes in different directions, as we explore how ones relationship to art can affect ones relationship to the people they love.  

I liked how Power Ballad  doesn't go where you think it's going to go. The film is the least interesting when it is following funny hijinx of Rick trying to reach Danny. It is at its most interesting when each is struggling with their relationship to the song in question, the catchy and very digestible titular ballad. 

For me the film doesn't quite have enough juice and feels like it needs to pad its story a bit. The lead up to Rick and Danny's final confrontation errs on the silly side a bit too much for my tastes, but when they do finally talk, really talk, again the film finds its groove. And the final moments worked for me, a rather satisfying conclusion of the thorny issue that finds a realistic way to resolve the plot, even if it doesn't quite answer the central question, a question I feel is more complicated than a simple yes or no. Sure the film gives us what the legal answer may be but its focus on relationships gives the film its emotional centre. 

Power Ballad

Starring: Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Beth Fallon, Havana Rose Liu, Jack Reynor

Writer/Director: John Carney

 

Masters of the Universe (2026)

Despite being in the generation that grew up with Masters of the Universe, it was not my thing. I had a couple of the toys as a child, I'd watch the show occasionally, but I was never into it or followed it that closely. I never quite understood the appeal. This is a property that is based on a toy line before it is any narrative or set of characters. Everything is built around the toys being sold. So the attempt to readapt it into something for a modern audience faces specific challenges and now that I've seen it, I'm not sure the new attempt pulls it off. 

Is this as bad as 1987 live action film? Not even close. That was a disastrous mess that wasn't even on a it's-so-bad-it's-good level. But is this a clever, self-acknowledging nostalgic tribute a la Dungeons and Dragons Honor Amongst Thieves? I don't think it gets there. It certainly leans into its self-awareness, mocking itself manytimes throughout, but it pushes past a teasing tone into mockery. 

And the story just isn't the fun, playful romp it needed to be. It's rather on the cliched and rote side. Dare I say it was a little dull? The production is at a high level (especially when we have 1987 to compare it too) but the script feels half-assed. The cast, acts like they are constantly winking at the audience with Leto and Brie being the most scenery chewing of the bunch. I get that it would be incredibly hard to take the premise and characters of Masters of the Universe not feel ridiculous but it could have been done with a tone that wasn't so condescending to itself and perhaps showed a bit more affection for the property. 

Masters of the Universe

Starring: Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Idris Elba, Alison Brie, James Purefoy, Morena Baccarin, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Kristen Wiig, Jared Leto, Dolph Lundgren, 

Director: Travis Knight

Writers: Chris Butler, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, David Callaham