Release: Discovery

 

Discovery

Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller

Director: Damien Chazelle

Writer: Jimmy Ellis & Chad Taylor

Cast: Julia Roberts, Tom Holland, Cooper Hoffman, Josh O'Connor, Riz Ahmed, Scoot McNairy, Renate Reinsve, Colman Domingo

Budget: $64,000,000

Domestic Box Office: $79,038,110

Foreign Box Office: $88,229,555

Total Profit: $29,710,989

Reaction: For a film without flashy effects and action scenes, these are very respectable numbers - especially given the expensive ensemble cast.

"Discovery is intellectually ambitious and often gripping, even if its ideas occasionally outpace its emotional clarity. Chazelle’s direction is sharp and propulsive, but the film sometimes leans too heavily on talky confrontations and withheld revelations, blunting its sci-fi edge. Still, strong performances - especially from Hoffman, Ahmed, and Reinsve - carry it through as a thoughtful, if slightly overstuffed, meditation on ambition and betrayal." - Reggie Moreland, Baltimore Sun

"A sharp cerebral sci-fi thriller, balancing the giddy rush of discovery with the dread of how such power corrupts. Layering in messy human drama of betrayal, secrecy, morality and survival until you cant tell whose protecting science or themselves. While its a bit talky at times, it still leaves audiences unsettled in the best way, wondering as a classic character would say "just because we could, doesn't mean we should." - Dexter Quinn, Cinematic Observer Newsletter

"Damien Chazelle and his talented writing team deliver a taut, adult sci-fi thriller more interested in moral erosion than spectacle, and Discovery largely works because of its ensemble - especially Cooper Hoffman, who gives the film its emotional gravity. Julia Roberts is quietly devastating, while most of the cast brings a lived-in intelligence that keeps the ethical debates sharp. Tom Holland, however, feels miscast and comparatively thin, a weak link in an otherwise formidable lineup. Even so, the story's restraint and pacing elevates the material into something thoughtful and entertaining." - Dave Manning, Ridgefield Press

Rated PG-13 for language, violence, and thematic material.