Review: Disclosure Day

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

One of director Steven Spielberg's most common stylistic flourishes is a shot of someone looking up at something - whether it's a dinosaur in "Jurassic Park," a flying saucer in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," or a movie screen in "The Fabelmans" - in a state of wonder and awe. These days, most people spend their time looking down - at their cellular devices, mostly, in a zombified state - but Spielberg is in his latest film calling on us to change all that and once again become curious about our world and universe.

His latest film, "Disclosure Day," is about many things, some of which are relevant to our current lived experience: a lack of faith in the government (which certainly applies at the moment), the feeling that we are not being trusted by higher powers to obtain knowledge for ourselves and, therefore, being taught to fear the unknown, and a pervasive disconnectedness that is being driven by technology. It is also not circumstantial that the film's sinister government figures are keeping aliens in detention centers.

The film is about the empowerment, joy, and enlightening experience of being brought together with people of different walks of life for a communal experience. In the case of this film, it's the knowledge that we are not alone in the universe, though from Spielberg's perspective it could be simpler - experiencing the wonders of a movie with an audience.

The picture jumps right into the action, almost as if you've missed the first episode of a TV show. Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor) formerly worked for a top secret government agency known as Wardex, helping to keep information about extraterrestrial visits to Earth over the decades a secret. But after discovering some footage depicting torture and various other cover-ups, he goes on the lam as a whistleblower, working with a group of dissidents led by Hugo (Colman Domingo) to plan for the titular day when all will be revealed. 

The opening scene is at what appears to be a UFC fight - which is, thankfully, not being held on the White House lawn - where he is to trade a backpack full of sensitive material for his girlfriend, Jane (Eve Hewson), who is being held hostage by Wardex's sinister leader, Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth). 

Meanwhile, in Kansas City, a peppy weather woman, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), finds herself exhibiting unusual powers - speaking in languages she doesn't know, being able to read people's minds, and most alarmingly, eliciting a series of clicks and croaks during a broadcast. Her boyfriend (Wyatt Russell) appears to be at the end of his rope.

These various threads come together in imaginative ways - although if one couldn't be blamed for thinking that there's almost too much information being juggled during the film's first two-thirds - in the film's finale. 

The picture takes an interesting route for a summer blockbuster: The film's first two hours are an almost nonstop chase among the various parties, leading to some superb set pieces - a tense sequence involving a car and two trains that only Spielberg could pull off with such panache and another that takes a more humorous approach and involves the film's heroes eluding Wardex via a piece of alien technology that enables invisibility.

However, the film's final 30 minutes end on a note that is awe-inspiring - not because of another finely-executed set piece, but rather due to Spielberg's ability to bring together all of its narrative strands and themes - the need for connection in a disconnected world, the idea of empathy as strength and lies and fear-mongering as weakness, and the power of a unifying event - in a satisfying way.

Spielberg has long been a master of populist blockbuster filmmaking - "Jaws," the Indiana Jones movies, "E.T. the Extra Terrestrial" - but those larger-scale movies have been interspersed with great films of a more personal or historical nature - "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," and "The Fabelmans." 

With "Disclosure Day," he has utilized the tools of the former (aliens, impressive set pieces and chase scenes) to address concepts that one might have expected to be found in his films of a more - for lack of a better phrase - serious nature. The result is his best blockbuster film since "Minority Report."

As I'd mentioned earlier, many great directors have trademark shots that appear in many of their films, from Spike Lee's floating double dolly shot to the sinister Kubrick Glare. Considering the filmography of this particular director, Spielberg's shot of people looking up in awe and wonder is a fitting one. By the end of "Disclosure Day," I was one of them.