‘Disclosure Day’ Review – There Is Nothing Wrong with Vintage Spielberg
When the first reviews for Disclosure Day started dropping like microphones, I was surprised to see them aim at Steven Spielberg’s competency as a filmmaker. Hearing the harshest, most cynical takes first, I seriously thought his career was over, and this film was a bigger turkey than a Finding Bigfoot marathon on Thanksgiving Day. There are two certainties for couch potatoes: Gilligan is never getting off the island, and Animal Planet will never catch a Sasquatch.
I almost skipped the latest blockbuster by one of the last century’s most groundbreaking directors. Haters tried to run me off, but I knew better. Though it dragged because of a ponderous runtime, what I got from the film felt like a return to form. The elder statesman resurfaced to show us how things are done; the Stones were on a reunion tour playing their best stuff. I could go on, but you get my point.
The film has a standard boilerplate sci-fi conspiracy plot with a magical, unexplained alien object that gives certain people powers, including clairvoyance, but not everyone can wield it or handle its properties. They have to be chosen by extraterrestrials as children, which requires a close encounter of the Fourth Kind (that’s straight-up abduction for those who don’t remember that movie with Milla Jovovich that lied to everybody wholesale).
Naturally, these objects and a bag full of data drives hoarded by a guy on the run (Josh O’Connor) prove the existence of the not-so-little-or-green “spacemen,” and that the government has been covering this up since Roswell. Colin Firth plays the head of a secret and highly equipped federal organization who wants to keep the lid on things, and he will do so by any means necessary. Unfortunately for him, the sudden erratic behavior of a Kansas City weatherwoman (Emily Blunt) captured live on the air and the agenda of a rogue colleague (Colman Domingo) make his job impossible.
Disclosure Day is being chided for recycling over-the-hill Boomer conspiracies, but I read it more as a tale of two Spielbergs. He is much older and far removed from the spry, ambitious auteur (and he is one in the purest sense, make no mistake) who amazed and shocked audiences with big sharks, revived dinosaurs, alien invaders, and faces melting off. While he’s made a few movies in the last few decades that got people talking, like Lincoln and Ready Player One, his biggest and best work came before 2005.
With The Fabelmans, Spielberg was trying to tell people who he was and what made him first fall in love with cinema. He may have been trying to rediscover his identity and passion personally, too, but whether that’s the case or not, Disclosure Day feels like the next step in that quest. The film reads like a nostalgia-driven ode to his favorite themes, which is the right move after going through the family photo albums and home movies in his previous picture.
He tries to relive his glory days in his newest entry into his storied oeuvre, and to a large degree, he succeeds. Like one of his oldest adventures, shots are framed with a steady hand, even in frenetic moments. There is also a crisper focus and better lighting than other films out right now that are saturated in darkness as if it’s a virtue (looking at you, Obsession). And did I mention the aliens?
As I said, it’s a Stones reunion with all the hits. Spielberg revisits his old tropes and delivers them with his usual style and flair that made Jurassic Park so special. Which reminds me: You can complain about the inconsistencies and dumb choices in Disclosure Day, but you remember the T-Rex pen suddenly had a cliff minutes after it didn’t, yet no one cared, right? Or that Indiana Jones didn’t know closing his eyes would save him from the Ark’s wrath?
My hope is Disclosure Day will look as good on the big screen ten years from now as it did when I saw it. I’m sure it will. Raiders, JP, Jaws, and Close Encounters have all aged well and look better with each glow-up. Time just needs to be offered up for a reassessment until the real problem is recognized. This time, it’s not that Grampa needs his keys taken away; it’s that the young people can’t pick up on a lost art even when a master of his craft places an example right in front of them.
Disclosure Day
PROS
- Based on the applause at my showing, it's a crowd pleaser
- Has everything you should expect and appreciate in a Spielberg movie
- Yeah, there are the usual chase scenes, but they're fun
CONS
- The few shots with Abrams lens flare
- Emily Blunt can read minds and the film shows off her powers more than letting her ability naturally fit the plot
