By Susan Granger

With the release of his 35^th movie, it’s obvious that Steven Spielberg is not just a good story-teller, he’s a GREAT story-teller. 

The suspenseful tale he spins this time is “Disclosure Day” about the U.S. government’s attempt to keep the truth about UFOs secret.

Sinister Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) heads WARDEX (Waived Reporting, Development and Extraction), a quasi-Defense Department agency from which cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) has stolen a powerful device of alien origin along with extensive classified information and video files. 

Although his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) is held hostage by Scanlon’s underlings, Daniel manages to free her and get away, igniting a manhunt.

Supported by WARDEX’s Director of Biological Assets, paternal Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), whistleblower Daniel believes people have a right to know about the coverup, dating back to the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, paranoia and the Nixon Administration. 

Meanwhile in the middle of a TV broadcast, Kansas City, Missouri, meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) suddenly begins making bizarre, guttural clicking sounds which make no sense – except to Daniel, who recognizes the alien code.

To the bewilderment of her boyfriend, Jackson (Wyatt Russell, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s son), Margaret can suddenly speak foreign languages – like Korean and Russian – and manipulate the minds of everyone she encounters. 

What Daniel and Margaret have in common is a terrifying childhood trauma that neither wants to remember. To tell you more would ruin the film’s many white-knuckle surprises and insights about faith in a supreme deity and the philosophical essence of humanity. 

Scripted by David Koepp from Steven Spielberg’s story, it revolves around a nefarious conspiracy, cloaked in sci-fi mystery, tracing back to “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of a Third Kind.” And it’s a timely topic since former President Obama said he believes aliens are real, prompting President Trump to accuse him of revealing “classified information.”

Sure – there are some gaping plot loopholes – but cinematographer Janusz Kaminski dazzles with a high-speed train chase. Buoyed by John Williams’ throwback score – on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Disclosure Day” is an exciting 9, playing in theaters now.

Catch up on Susan’s recent reviews:

Susan Granger

^{_{Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.}}

Unidentified, 2025.

Written and Directed by Haifaa al-Mansour.
Starring Mila Al-Zahrani, Aziz Gharbawi, Shafi Al Harthy, Adwa Alasiri, and Othoub Sharar.

SYNOPSIS:

A grieving mother, fueled by her passion for true crime, seeks answers when a teenage girl is found dead in the desert and the police investigation stalls.

From writer/director Haifaa al-Mansour, Unidentified is one of those thrillers that one can’t help wanting to jump forward to the end when talking about it, as it contains a sinking major twist that isn’t just preposterous, but rather not even the same grounded tone exploring real-world social issues in Riyadh, exchanging that for trashy airport novel vibes. When the reveal is unfolding, it feels as if it is from another movie entirely. That’s also not to say the filmmaker isn’t still aiming for something regarding patriarchal commentary, but all that can be seen is an absurd turn of events that don’t necessarily need to be here; if anything, this would be passable if it had ended about ten minutes earlier.

In a unique angle for murder mysteries, the story is centered on aspiring police detective Noelle (Mila Al-Zahrani, effectively playing a woman haunted by her past and the misogynistic culture around her that doesn’t allow women the same chances at freedom or thriving), compulsively watching an influencer breaking down various American murder mysteries and culprit tactics while working in a precinct scanning files with the many men around her under the assumption that she isn’t equipped to handle anything more beyond that. Upon the discovery of a dead teenage girl, the slight wrinkle comes in that the detectives aren’t only looking for a suspect, but also the identity of the woman. If she isn’t claimed by loved ones in roughly two weeks, the body will be buried in an unmarked grave. As for Noelle, she becomes overwhelmed by the feeling that this could have been her.

After a sluggish start, which sees Noelle brought into the fold more to get her thoughts on the crime scene, she begins going against the orders of her superiors to further dig around for information, eventually coming into contact with two girls at a high school who knew the dead girl. Soon after that, she starts receiving cryptic text messages from unknown senders related to whatever happened (a prologue does keep viewers marginally ahead, informing us that the body was driven out into the desert and dropped there dead). Where Unidentified truly starts to get interesting and wildly different from American murder mysteries is that the deceased is identified relatively halfway through, with the story shifting more into a family that doesn’t want to claim the girl as theirs, for reasons related to sexism and what the girl was doing. 

Perhaps a misstep, the film is also concerned with shading in some of Noelle’s interior life, with a disapproving brother who thinks she should get married again (she was already in an arranged marriage for five years and divorced, while barely looking 25) instead of striving to become a detective. There is also some business about the ex-husband being abusive, and a stillborn daughter, mostly serving as a distraction that doesn’t add much. That subplot is here for a reason, but unfortunately, nearly all the wrong ones. No favors are done by the awful color grading in these flashbacks and performances that feel straight from a soap opera.

Engaging and refreshing when Noelle is trying to get through to this family that the girl is still part of them, there are a couple of sobering, sad conversations. Whenever shifting back into trying to pin the killer, there is always that sneaking suspicion that the answer will be ridiculous. For a film that already takes some time to get away from dry generic interrogations and build momentum, that identifiable aspect of the ruins Unidentified.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Here’s your one sentence pitch for “The Million Dollar Bet.”

A doesn’t-sweat-anything gambler talks “friends” into betting him that he can’t run 70 miles in 24 hours — in Vegas — with a sandstorm bearing down on Sin City.

You’ve got a gambling milieu, a couple of ticking clocks — the 24 hour “race” challenge, and the freak-event sandstorm (Vegas got a doozy of one in July of 2025) — inveterate gamblers, a life-threatening bet and a “true story” tag.

But true or not, collection of “colorful” if cliched characters and interesting stakes be damned, this thing never comes together.

Justin Cornwell plays Jack, a card player/gambler on a bit of a “run,” when the problems of his younger casino-trolling pal Hank (Douglas Smith) take a fresh turn.

Twentysomething Hank, out of shape but a “natural athlete,” wants Jack and others to make a “prop bet” on his ability to run the near-equivalent of three consecutive marathons in 24 hours.

The film starts to go wrong as the financing, the payout, the odds and the architecture of this bet is skimmed over and never explained. We know Jack doesn’t have that kind of cash. We know Hank doesn’t, but is fond of wild “prop bets” which are sometimes epic over-reaches.

As neither of them has a million bucks (it starts out at $150k) or a stake to put up, as others aren’t seen “getting in on the action,” where is the three-to-one odds payout coming from?

Hank’s a Vegas native, with a cranky, protective chain-smoking mom (Carrie Gibson), a dull stepdad (Todd Carroll) he ignores and a doting sister (Kristen Lee Gatoskie) who gave up the :dirty money” of casino card dealing for a new career in go-kart repair.

Jack tries to call Hank’s bluff, but he’d really hope he’ll talk himself out of this. Hank’s sister tries to convince him and his mother tries to order him to bail (and Jack to let Hank off the hook).

But Hank begins. He’ll need to average nearly three miles per hour, “no walking…taking as many breaks as I desire,” to manage 70 miles in 24 hours.

He’s doing 720 foot laps around the complex where he and Jack and “not taking sides” and not betting gambler pal Tony (Sean Rogers) live.

Colorful, cliched neighbors — the angsty, thinks-too-much tween, the nosy little old lady from across the street, the 50something shirtless Euro trash who rides his skateboard with his dog pulling it for exercise — track Hank and chat words of encouragement or discouragement.

Everybody pressures Jack to back down. An emergency room doc talks about how deadly it cam be for somebody out of shape to attempt a marathon in Vegas, much less nearly THREE marathons.

And that damned storm is coming.

I was halfway through “Million Dollar Bet,” taking notes on “dialogue that sounds ‘typed’ and not lived or spoken by living, breathing characters” before I realized it’s an Austrian production. So yes, English as a Second Language dialogue takes one out of this Thomas Woschitz film from time to time.

Cornwell, of TV’s “The In-Between,” has an interesting but not arresting screen presence.

“Guys, it’s a bet, not a funeral” was never going to pack a punch, and Cornwell soft sells it to boot.

Former child actor Smith (TV’s “Big Love” And “Big Little Lies”) shows us little that indicates edge, mania, cunning or even a character’s interior life.

The supporting players don’t register much more than that, but they’re not “carrying” the picture.

Woschitz has been around for a while — “Bad Luck” and “Universalove” are his best-known Austrian films — but he struggles to make even the simple ticking clock elements tick over.

And the payoff is more disappointing than the disappointments that precede it.

The pitch might have felt like a sure thing, but plot holes and cut rate casting made “Million Dollar Bet” a long shot all along.

Rating: unrated

Cast: Justin Cornwell, Douglas Smith, Kristen Lee Gatoskie, Sean Rogers, Billie Steiner, Todd Carrol, Dee Catrone and Carrie Gibson.

Credits: Directed by Thomas Woschitz, scripted by Andrea Liva and Thomas Woschitz. A Narrative Distribution release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:29