Paranoid authors, conspiracy theorists, immoral politicians and talented comedians — no, it’s not the guest list of some famous podcaster; it’s just another weekend of new movies hitting streaming services like Netflix.
Peacock is celebrating Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg’s hit summer sci-fi movie starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, while Netflix is unleashing Animals, Ben Affleck’s new political thriller.
HBO Max is celebrating spooky season with Hokum, an Irish horror flick with Adam Scott, and Netflix is celebrating a comedy legend you’ve never heard of with the aptly titled Who Is Martin Mull?
‘Disclosure Day’ (2026) — Peacock
Colman Domingo, Tommy Martinez, Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor in Disclosure Day. Universal Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
What exactly is “Disclosure Day”? It’s the day the whole world learns the truth about a question many have asked and failed to answer over the years: “Is there intelligent alien life in the universe?”
Kansas City meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) didn’t think much of it until she started speaking gibberish during a live broadcast. After finding out that gibberish is secretly an alien language, she and cybersecurity analyst Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) team up to uncover the truth about aliens who have already walked among us. But the U.S. government doesn’t want anyone to know aliens are real, and they might do anything to stop Margaret and Daniel from staging a Disclosure Day to tell the world what they know.
Disclosure Day is another rousing Steven Spielberg sci-fi picture that’s less violent than War of the Worlds and more mature than Ready Player One. While it deals with tiny green men from another galaxy, it takes a relatively realistic approach to its far-out subject matter. The film’s secret weapon is Blunt, who delivers an emotionally rich performance as a woman who discovers her past isn’t what she thought it was.
‘Hokum’ (2026) — HBO Max
Adam Scott in Hokum. Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection
Ghosts? Haunted inns? That’s all just silly hokum, at least according to author Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott). He’s in a small Irish town to settle some personal affairs, so he has no time for ghost stories. But when guests start disappearing at the creaky inn he’s staying at, he begins to suspect he’s stepped into a horror novel straight out of Stephen King. Is the rumored witch who kidnaps people and imprisons them in the underworld really true? And if so, is Ohm next on her list?
Hokum is part cozy murder mystery, part supernatural fright fest. Fortunately, both parts work really well, and that’s due to director Damian McCarthy’s evocation of an Ireland dominated by tall tales and dark shadows. This is a moody little horror film that crawls under your skin in the best way possible. Scott is effective as the disbelieving, slightly smarmy hero who becomes a true believer in all things spooky by the end — if he makes it out alive, that is.
‘Animals’ (2026) — Netflix
Kerry Washington and Ben Affleck in Animals. Warrick Page/Netflix © 2026.
What would you do to save your child? That’s the question worried parents Mark and Abigail Kimball (Ben Affleck and Kerry Washington) have to answer near the beginning of Animals, and even they don’t like the answer. Mark is a Los Angeles mayoral candidate who has spent almost all of his money on his expensive campaign. That’s why he’s particularly desperate when someone kidnaps his son and demands money — lots of it — within a few hours. He doesn’t have it, but he has the means to get it. All he has to do is break the law he’s campaigning to uphold and protect.
Animals hails from the director who also gave the world two of the last decade’s most suspenseful thrillers, The Town and Argo. That happens to be Affleck, who, despite winning the Best Picture Oscar for the latter, is still underrated as a filmmaker. In this film, he once again shows his fascination with characters who think they’re moral until life causes them to question and even abandon their values. AI controversy aside, Animals is a flawed but satisfying thriller that will make you question how far you will go to protect your family — and what you’d sacrifice to do so.
‘Who Is Martin Mull?’ (2026) — Netflix
Martin Mull is the quintessential “that guy,” a character actor you’ve definitely seen on film and TV but can’t quite remember his name. This new Netflix documentary wants to change that.
Co-directed by the late Bob Saget, Who Is Martin Mull? chronicles the actor’s strange, quixotic career, from being an opening act to Bruce Springsteen and revolutionizing comedy on shows like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman in the ‘70s to appearing in such beloved cult films like Serial and Clue in the 1980s. Featuring interviews with Tom Waits, Steve Martin and David Alan Grier, the doc faithfully recreates a time in Hollywood when a renaissance man with ordinary looks like Mull could work steadily and in pretty much every genre. By the end of the film, you’ll know the answer to the title question and might be sad the late actor isn’t around to appear in more projects. (Mull died in 2024.)
