DISCLOSURE DAY

Okay folks, I am here to play the villain as usual - but not in the way you’d expect, so hear me out before you freak out. I have not enjoyed a Steven Spielberg movie in over 10+ years. The once untouchable director of classics like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Saving Private Ryan along with my two favourites from his filmography, Jurassic Park and Jaws,felt like he lost his stride, from both a blockbuster or storytelling perspective. AND TRUST ME, I KNOW I AM IN THE MINORITY ON THIS STATEMENT. The Post and The BFG were neither appealing nor entertaining for me from the get-go, while his remake of West Side Story was wildly unnecessary. But the cherry on top of it all for me was the criminally overrated and forever eyeroll worthy The Fablemans, which I literally lost friends over from my review back in 2022. And yet, here I found myself excited to watch his two and a half hour long alien conspiracy film, presenting a return to the kind of film I want to see him make. Thought-provoking but still packing a sense of humanity, Disclosure Day not only manages to do just that but tap into a plethora of themes and emotions that I did not anticipate from the near 80 year old director.

Disclosure Day centers on a U.S. government conspiracy to conceal the existence of intelligent alien life and how those plans are upended by a small, determined group committed to revealing the truth to the world. Emily Blunt plays meteorologist Margaret Fairchild, who is suddenly overcome by a mysterious extraterrestrial force while live on air, while Josh O'Connor stars as Daniel Kellner, a man who has gone rogue against his former employer WARDEX, driven to expose the reality of alien life to humanity. The film opens quickly and without a second to breathe, as we see Josh O’Connor’s Daniel distressed and being chased by said shadowy organization, who has taken his presumed girlfriend hostage. Disorienting the viewer almost immediately, I love the pace at which the film starts because it sets the tempo and never really slows down, keeping us on edge as it recalls Spielberg's past sci-fi classics while exploring a lot of themes I never expected to see in this kind of film.

That being said, Disclosure Day’s real triumph is in its exploration of religion, geopolitics and how revealing information of this magnitude would shift the world in a single moment. Considering the film is set in a fictional timeline where we are on the brink of World War 3, the character of Jane, played phenomenally by Eve Hewson, is the perfect example of this melding of religion meets international politics and policy. Her quarrel with O’Connor’s Daniel is the strongest aspect of the film in my opinion, especially as tensions rise between the two of them after she begs the question to Daniel near the end of the first act about how he thinks the world will react to finding out there is alien life in the universe. And that, in and of itself, becomes the fundamental strongest aspect of the film because it presents questions to us the viewer, all the while taking us on an absolute rollercoaster of a ride over its two plus hour runtime.

I have been a big critic of writer David Koepp’s work for many years, with most of his recent work - much like Spielberg’s - being absolute trash in my opinion. It is clear that his screenplay is influenced not only by past Spielberg projects, but of 70s and 80s chase thrillers like The Parallax View or Marathon Man, where the majority of the film feels like one giant race against time. There is even a clear homage to 1951 classic The Day The Earth Stood Still, with the film's underlying sense of global destruction. And although Koepp's screenplay feels occasionally overstuffed, occasionally tripping over its own ambitions, it is elevated by Spielberg's assured direction and the breathtaking cinematography of longtime collaborator Janusz Kaminski, allowing the faults of some story beats to be quickly erased by the beauty and intensity we see on screen.

But for all the geopolitical and conspiracy discussions, the strongest aspect of Disclosure Day is far and away Emily Blunt. Having been a longtime Blunt fan, I have never once doubted her ability to carry a film, but this performance is hands down the best work she has ever done - and this is coming from a guy who LIVES AND DIES by Sicario. Blunt is absolutely commanding every time she is on screen, but the third act is where she enters into another dimension of physically and mentally demanding acting. It’s absolutely incredible stuff and I really hope something like this doesn’t get overlooked come awards season time because this is stellar work.

Disclosure Day is a smart science fiction movie that poses real world questions with fictional consequences, and in the hands of any other director, I feel that the weight of this subject and movie would have folded like a cheap suit. I can’t believe I am even writing this but Disclosure Day feels like a return to form for Spielberg, in a fashion that I have missed since the early to mid 2000’s. The name Steven Spielberg alone creates a giddiness for me as a film fan, and this film will continue on with that tradition. I cannot wait to give Disclosure Day another watch and hope it gathers some steam at the box office, keeping this current string of fresh, original film ideas alive at the cinema.