*going fucking through it*
... Disclosure Day is a real movie, right? a real movie that came out this year? 2026? (the same year as fucking Project Hail Mary?!) with a budget over $100 million dollars? and made by one of the MOST FAMOUS directors of all time??? i didn't just black out for 145 minutes and relive the hallucinatory state i experienced that one time in uni where i had to stay awake for, like, 85 hours straight??? because i am pretty sure that was the most BAFFLING, SPECTACULAR failure of a, big budget, hollywood movie i have ever had the fucking VISCERAL DISPLEASURE of experiencing.
i'm racking my brain to think if - for me, personally - anything even comes close???
don't get me wrong~ Emily Blunt acted her ASS OFF!!!! the whole main cast did, really. and no romance subplot between the leads?! HUZZA! also that scene in the train???? SO EMOTIONAL!!!! give EB an oscar! but... like... did i just see the same movie as everybody else???? people are enjoying it?? as a whole??? BEYOND the general sentiment of: "we need more movies about radical empathy to help people through The Horrors(™)" (which i DO absolutely agree with! just... this movie fucking aint it. oof.)
truly, i feel like there's a timeline that splits off from this moment where i become one of those humans who says: "i hated X so much that i had to start a YouTube channel just to talk about it". but spiraling about negative things isn't a healthy use of time.
that said!!! i just gotta get some of this OUT of my head and move... through... these... FEELINGGGGSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! *struggling to push down all the overwhelm about big, real world, issues that this stupid fucking movie is causing me to froth over like some kind of unhinged doomsayer*
look. SO MUCH of this is probably proximity (and my own current - open worm can - state of affairs)... but Project Hail Mary just did things as a film that filled me with so much RAW and OVERWHELMING love, adoration, and hope for humanity - along with all of these DEEPLY complex bonus emotions about the collaborative craft of storytelling - that Disclosure Day just feels like an insulting farce by comparison.
in fact, Disclosure Day did nothing but reminded me about just how messed up things in the real world are. not JUST because of it's talk of WWIII and the hopelessness of our current state. not even because of it's poorly-delivered themes or tired cliches! it filled me with despair because the exact same spirit of collaboration and hope for the future that Project Hail Mary demonstrated and renewed in me, legendary director, Steven Spielberg used over $100 million dollars and some of the most talented humans on earth to STAMP OUT. because how could it not, when (on top of all of the parts of the films look, sound, and story that are insultingly underdeveloped) the way he chooses to show us HOPE for humanity's future IS NOT by showing us connections or collaborations cultivated between intelligent lifeforms through mutual effort and struggle overcoming adversity and differences; or through SHOWING US TANGIBLE, ACTIONABLE, HUMAN ACTS OF RADICAL EMPATHY - LIKE ITS WHOLE CORE SEEMS TO BE TRYING (and failing) TO MOTION US TOWARDS - NOPE! the way Steven Spielberg chooses to show us hope for humanity's future is through the convenience of extraterrestrial macguffin magic.
i could go on and on in micro detail~ but i'd still just be mad about a film when, really, i need to save that anger for actionable things. at the end of the day, 2026 has given us these two sci-fi films that are both - ostensibly - about reaching out across seemingly insurmountable divides during a period of fear, desperation, and hardship to restore our understanding in the FOUNDATIONAL NEED for empathy, trust, and collaboration to give us TRUE HOPE for the future... and only one of them delivers anything more than lip service.
GO WATCH PROJECT HAIL MARY!
