Martin's Musings

Steven Spielberg has spent much of his career asking us to look up at the sky in wonder. From Close Encounters of the Third Kind to E.T. and even the darker War of the Worlds, his best alien stories have balanced spectacle with genuine human emotion. 

His latest film, Disclosure Day, is clearly trying to join that club. Not surprisingly, given its pedigree, it’s an entertaining, ambitious ride. That said, it never quite reaches the heights of Spielberg’s other extraterrestrial adventures.

The metaphor is almost too obvious.

In Daniel Roher’s Tuner, Leo Woodall plays Niki, a talented young piano tuner whose life is complicated by hyperacusis, a neurological condition that causes everyday sounds to be perceived as painfully loud or overwhelming. To cope, he wears a hearing aid. When things are less predictable, he wears special noise-cancelling headphones.

The film is hitting theaters at the start of the summer movie season, a time of year when loud and overwhelming are kind of the trend, and when more delicate sounds — the kind Niki helps clients preserve — require a more trained ear.

In that same spirit, Tuner is counter-programming for moviegoers with slightly more refined tastes, a film that stands out among the usual summer offerings at the multiplex.

If Hollywood thinks a man becoming a stay-at-home dad is still comedy gold in 2026, somebody should probably tell them that the joke expired around the same time shoulder pads and cassette tapes did. 

The new movie The Breadwinner is an updated take on a concept that was endearingly portrayed in 1983, back when Michael Keaton was vacuuming the curtains in Mr. Mom. The difference is that Mr. Mom was considered timely and culturally relevant during the recession of the early 1980s. Back then, the idea of a suburban dad struggling with housework and childcare was inherently hilarious and socially provocative. This new film mostly just feels stranded in the past.

Nearly seven years after The Mandalorian helped launch the Disney+ streaming service, Mando and his sidekick, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda), hit the big screen in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. 

The result is pretty much exactly what you’d expect: an extended episode of the show with bigger explosions, some fan service, and just enough heart to keep you engaged for more than two hours.