rewrite this title Disclosure Day Review (A Second Opinion): Spielberg Still Knows How to Make Us Look Up

PLOT: A TV weatherperson (Emily Blunt) and a government whistleblower (Josh O’Connor) are thrown together in a life-or-death race against time to reveal the truth about the existence of aliens.

REVIEW: It feels right to start by talking about Steven Spielberg. There are very few filmmakers left where a new movie still feels like an event, and Spielberg is one of them. That’s why Disclosure Day is going to divide people, which is the whole reason for doing a second opinion review. Before I saw it, I read our own Chris Bumbray’s review here, then saw early reactions on the socials calling it either classic Spielberg or “mid.” But let’s not kid ourselves, even when The Beard delivers “mid” work, it’s still usually above-average material. I say usually because The BFG exists, and I haven’t seen The Lost World since the day it came out in theaters, so I’m not ready to pick that fight today.

When I think of Spielberg’s filmography, I always come back to something he said while presenting Ready Player One: “This is not a film that we made here, I promise you. This is a movie.” That line stuck with me because it really does separate the two sides of Spielberg.  With Disclosure Day, I think he’s doing both.  Sure, this is a big sci-fi chase movie with shadowy agents, strange abilities, impossible revelations, and people running from black SUVs. Underneath all of that, it’s about truth, fear, belief, control, and whether humanity is better off being protected from the unknown or forced to face it.

Spielberg lets you know right away that he isn’t sleepwalking through this one. The first shot is a POV of a professional wrestler kicking the hell out of us, and it almost feels like Spielberg grabbing us by the collar and telling us to “wake up and open our eyes”. From there, the movie barely lets up. Emily Blunt plays Margaret Fairchild, a TV weatherperson whose life is turned upside down when she starts experiencing things she can’t explain. Josh O’Connor plays Daniel Kellner, a whistleblower trying to get the truth out before the wrong people silence him. Their stories collide as Colin Firth’s Noah Scanlon tries to keep extraterrestrial life buried.

The movie then becomes a two-hour chase scene with a wonderful thirty-minute finale attached to it. Think of the chase from E.T., minus the kids on bikes, stretched into a larger conspiracy thriller. Kinda like Keys, Firth’s Scanlon could have easily been a generic villain, but Spielberg gives him a better angle. He believes he’s doing the responsible thing, basically working from the same logic as Agent K in Men in Black: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.” Scanlon thinks the world can’t handle the truth, and that makes him more interesting than someone who just wants power.

Some may feel the movie is overstuffed, and I understand why. Disclosure Day is long. There was one moment where I checked my watch. But by the time everything came together, I honestly couldn’t think of anything I’d cut. Some quieter moments will get called trimmable, but once you see where the movie is going, they feel less like fat and more like emotional groundwork.

That final act is where Disclosure Day will really divide people. Thankfully, the trailers seem to hold back a lot from the last stretch, so I won’t spoil what happens. However, I’ll just say that I was moved to tears. I was genuinely in awe of what was happening on screen. It’s the kind of huge, sincere climax that a lot of modern blockbusters would be too embarrassed to attempt. Some viewers are going to roll their eyes at it, and I get that. For me, it worked. It’s one of the strongest climaxes of Spielberg’s later career.

A lot of that emotional lift comes from John Williams, who reminds you pretty quickly why his music and Spielberg’s images are such an insane pairing. There were moments in this score that felt like classic Amblin adventure music, with that old school feeling of movement, wonder, and danger all at once. It feels like Williams is tapping back into that same feeling without just recycling his past work.

Janusz Kamiński’s cinematography also gives the movie a surprising amount of movement. The camera is restless in the best way, starting with that wild POV opener and continuing through several set pieces that feel like Spielberg reaching back to his earlier work. 

The cast also helps sell it. Emily Blunt is fantastic here, and I’d put this among her strongest work. Once Margaret starts slipping into other languages and realizing something impossible is happening to her, the performance really takes off. There’s also a panic attack scene here that felt more convincing than most I’ve seen depicted on screen. Josh O’Connor is also very good as Daniel, while Colman Domingo brings warmth and weight to a role that could have been buried in exposition. As for Wyatt Russell…Is he barely in the movie? Yes. But I don’t think that makes him pointless. His character is basically there as comic relief, and I think the movie needs him. With all the massive ideas and life or death stakes, having Margaret’s boyfriend orbiting the early section gives the movie some breathing room. Sometimes a character is there to give the movie a little bounce, and Russell, among others, does that.

Now, I do agree with the use of the CGI animals. They’re bad. For a movie of this caliber, from this director, with this much craft on display everywhere else, those shots stand out in a big way. They’re easily the most distracting part of the movie. There are also a few pieces of dialogue that lean hard into Spielberg sincerity, which will either work for you or make you cringe.

I’m not saying Disclosure Day doesn’t have issues. It’s long. It has some clunky moments and a few visual effects that should have looked better. But it’s also thrilling, emotional, strange, funny, and full of that old Spielberg magic. It’s a movie through and through, but when it really matters, it becomes a film. And when I walked out, I said the same thing to myself I told my manager at the movie theater 25 years ago when exiting A.I.: “that was a beautiful film.”  And I can say this for certain: this will probably be Tom DeLonge’s favorite flick ever.

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