Pan and Slam

Movie Review: Disclosure Day

PG-13 2h 25m

• Director
  • Steven Spielberg
• Writers
  • David Koepp
  • Steven Spielberg
• Stars
  • Emily Blunt
  • Josh O’Connor
  • Colin Firth

by Jason Koenigsberg

Solid and steadfast sci-fi innovator Steven Spielberg returns to the genre that established him as a premier filmmaker with Disclosure Day. Early in his career Spielberg made a name for himself with alien-based blockbusters Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. (1982) giving science fiction movies a never before seen emotional and humanistic touch. He returned to sci-fi a quarter of a century ago with the more cynical A.I. (2001) and Minority Report (2002) but neither of those films featured friendly, intellectual aliens. Disclosure Day is more aligned thematically with his earlier sci-fi movies than his later ones and follows the philosophy Spielberg has always stated that if there is intelligent life outside of our planet he believes they would be kind and want to share knowledge with humanity. Something that his action packed remake of War of the Worlds (2005) went against but he explained those Martians were not meant to symbolize aliens but serve as a metaphor against the war on terror in a post 9/11 panic stricken world. Disclosure Day follows the usual optimism and humanistic approach Spielberg’s best movies contain. It is a plea for humans in our current state of affairs and increased division to stop, take a breath, slow down our lives and connect with each other.

The opening shot is a foot smashing into the screen. The camera pulls out to reveal that we are in the middle of a wrestling match between a wrestler wearing red tights and another wearing blue. Subtlety has never been one of Spielberg’s strongest suits and the minute you see fans in the crowd cheering for blood wearing red hats and American flags this is an obvious commentary on MAGA and with the UFC stage set on the White House lawn, Disclosure Day‘s release is more timely than Spielberg himself may have ever expected. The colors blue and red reappear throughout the film and the expressive hyperrealistic cinematography from Janusz Kaminski reflects a sense of urgency with lens flares and soft light. Unlike many recent movies Disclosure Day jumps right into the action. There is no unrealistic dialogue to set up characters or exposition. From the first scenes this movie feels more like a second episode on a Netflix series than it does most feature films.

In fact, the least realistic aspect of Disclosure Day is how many people across the country seem to make up this Men In Black-type government agency that goes around and covers up evidence of extraterrestrial life. It just feels like it would take only one disgruntled employee to successfully spoil it and the secret that our government has been hiding knowledge of alien life for 79 years would have been revealed long ago. But I guess it took until 2026 and that is where we meet our heroes played by Josh O’Connor as the man with the knowledge that threatens to tell the world and evades capture from these government agents led by Colin Firth. Firth intentionally plays his character not as vile as he could which ends up predictably favoring our protagonists. The other main character is a weather lady for a Kansas City news station played by Emily Blunt. This is her biggest role since her Oscar nominated turn in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023) and she definitely makes the most of it. She gives a wonderful performance of a woman wanting more out of life even though she has found success in a high profile broadcasting job. Spielberg may not be known for subtlety but Emily Blunt’s character subtly symbolizes women’s liberation as she embraces her new AI-like powers that were gifted to her.

The biggest drawback in Disclosure Day is the over reliance on CGI animals, the red bird, the deer, and the fox all looked incredibly fake and take the viewer out of the experience. They either should have spent more time rendering those particular effects or just hired real animals for those scenes. Despite that, Disclosure Day works exceedingly well with its suspenseful chase scenes, the best parts of the movie are when our characters are running while Colin Firth and his agents are in pursuit. Nonagenarian John Williams’ score serves the suspenseful scenes well and the dialogue driven and emotional moments with complimentary music that never dominates or distracts from the performances.

Disclosure Day is Spielberg trying to make a social commentary as he did with most of his sci-fi films from the twenty-first century, not a personal statement about his childhood or nuclear families as he did with Close Encounters and E.T. This is his statement on the Trump administration, fake news, and AI. The government agents are seen torturing and imprisoning aliens the way our ICE agents hurt and detain illegal aliens. Spielberg makes a statement about protecting wealth and power in the guise of protecting the masses from knowledge and the truth. He deals with themes of faith and religion and how those institutions would react if they suddenly found out we are not alone in this universe. Spielberg, who is often known for giving audiences too much information and explanations, instead ends Disclosure Day as a plea, asking us to believe and most importantly to listen. It is one of his strongest and most unlikely endings for any of his recent movies.