‘Disclosure Day’ Review: What Spielberg Wants to Know Is, Can We Get a Little Closer? [A-]

The truth is out there, and we all know it. To many of us, living in contemporary society requires constant vigilance in order to not fall victim to intentionally misleading information. In an age where AI and politicians (and sometimes both, like a painfully off-key duet) work hard to make us doubt and disbelieve everything we see, cynicism isn’t just virtue, it’s a survival mechanism. But with that cynicism comes an automatic distancing from our fellow humans. This detachment from those around us only further aids those in control, eager to weaponize our voluntary siloing by stoking flames of distrust for anyone different from ourselves. Of course, it’s all a distraction meant to provoke infighting and keep the many from turning on the powerful few, but knowing that we’re being misled doesn’t make our isolating reality any easier to live in. Leave it to Steven Spielberg to see our fragmented society and seek to give us a vision of what can happen if we let the truths of our world (and beyond) bring us closer together, pushing aside humanity’s petty and unhelpful obsessions in favor of the rallying abilities of revelation. With Disclosure Day, the ultimate blockbuster filmmaker assembles a hopeful ode to what ultimately really matters: the connections we make with those we encounter – no matter how briefly – and how any interaction has the potential to change our lives, and thus, the world. 

Disclosure Day centers around recent Oscar nominee (finally!) Emily Blunt and leading man du jour Josh O’Connor, playing, respectively, weatherwoman Margaret Fairchild and Dr. Daniel Kellner. At the film’s open, Daniel is shown to be already embroiled in some sort of governmental cover-up, with intimidating figures following him and his companion Jane (Eve Hewson). The details of what Daniel knows or has that the shadowy organization (led by Colin Firth’s Noah Scanlon) seeks are not entirely clear, and those watching the film learn information at about the same rate as Jane. 

Meanwhile, Margaret, clearly restless of her life in Kansas City with her boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell), is hoping to move from standing in front of a weather report to sitting behind an anchor desk. But one morning, a cardinal flies into her apartment, and its strange visitation seems to activate something in Margaret. She suddenly has the ability to understand and speak multiple languages, along with being able to see private details and thoughts of others just by locking eyes with them. It becomes clear that something is drawing Margaret and Daniel together, even if they don’t know it, and their meeting may hold the key to revealing to the world just what exactly the government is covering up. And yes, aliens are involved.

Until they inevitably meet, the film spends about half of its runtime bouncing back and forth between Daniel and Margaret’s parallel journeys. Margaret’s storyline proves to be consistently exciting and unexpectedly funny as she reckons with her newfound powers. It’s thrilling to follow a character just as confused about what’s going on as the audience. Meanwhile, Daniel’s misadventure is decidedly less buoyant, owing to the fact that the aforementioned mysterious organization is on his tail the entire time, meaning that there’s basically no time for fun. O’Connor has the task of delivering lots of expository details to Jane, but even more importantly, to us. His role requires him to spend a lot of the film in a similar state of mind, as he’s pursued by his foes for the entirety of the story, which means a good deal of his performance involves merely running and making similar shocked and/or stressed facial expressions. Thankfully, he’s an actor with a magnetism and winning spirit that makes him immediately compelling (plus, his American accent is spot on).

And then there’s Emily Blunt, giving one of, if not the best performance of her impressive career. There are so many different modes that she has to take on as her character and all of them are executed perfectly. She has to play a believable television personality, and her interpretation of the uncanny cadence and speech patterns of a news anchor are perfect and, in a movie about literal extraterrestrials, feels otherworldly in that unique way that overly-friendly reporters do. She completely sells her character’s more emotional moments; one scene on a train that follows a spectacular action sequence sees her having to be talked through a panic attack by Daniel, and Blunt is believable to such a degree that it’s almost alarming. And, most interestingly, there’s the deep voice, “locked-in” gear she shifts into whenever Margaret makes a deep connection with someone, suddenly finding herself able to peer into every corner of their existence, past and, seemingly, future. Blunt’s work during these moments is key to the overall success of the film, as the sincerity evoked in these instances ties into the film’s suggestion that we banish lonely cynicism in favor of open-hearted interaction. 

Disclosure Day reckons with a world that looks down on empathy, seeing it as unnecessary and naive. But Margaret serves as a personified rebuttal against such anti-social ways of thinking. Whenever she forms an instant bond with another character by looking in their eyes, the other person inevitably reacts with wonder at the fact that they’re truly being seen, being heard, and being underwood. Society values and rewards briskness, with a hyper-emphasis on productivity and efficiency forcing many to brush past others on the way to the next career achievement. Conversation, no matter how brief, is seen as something to get through rather than one of the easiest forms of socialization. Here, Margaret takes in those she talks to entirely, and even with very little context about these momentary interactions, Blunt’s soft spoken approach and Spielberg’s sympathetic capturing of these instances is consistently and reliably moving. 

Joining Spielberg behind the scenes is a roster of reliable hands who’ve worked frequently with the master filmmaker. Janusz Kaminski shoots the film with agility, moving through the characters’ spaces in ways that occasionally defy physics and even the properties of solid matter. His camera glides, flips, and dives through tight spaces like a bird of prey on the hunt. Spielberg gives him the chance to show off with some notable long takes that are especially involved in terms of blocking and business for the characters to attend to; it’s always exciting to notice that Spielberg hasn’t cut in a while, and realize that we’re in for one of his trademark oners. Kaminski’s affection for bright points of light is more obvious here than ever before, with lens flares and spotlights aplenty. Depending on one’s taste, this can feel like a bit much at times. But when a light illuminates an actor’s face perfectly, it’s hard to complain. 

As with (almost) all of Spielberg’s films, John Williams serves as the composer. And while his music is certainly present throughout more of the film than his sparse but beautiful score for Spielberg’s last The Fabelmans, it’s best to not expect extremely memorable, melodic tunes like those that Williams was famous for in his legendary 20th century collaborations with Spielberg. Here, his work is light on notable themes, but undeniably rousing, filled with distinctly Williamsian instrumental choices and flourishes (and of course, heavy use of French horn).

Although Spielberg himself came up with the film’s story, David Koepp (most famous for co-writing the Spielberg classic Jurassic Park) is responsible for the screenplay. It’s not easy to assess just from watching it which of the film’s story elements come from the director and which come from Koepp, but certain aspects of the screenplay are troublingly inelegant. Some character details are tossed out with little follow-through (the importance of math in communicating with the aliens gets a strangely cursory mention). And the excellent, assured Colman Domingo is given huge chunks of speech in which his authoritative character expounds on the film’s powerful themes of human connection, but they’re overwritten to the degree that the dialogue threatens to muddle the narrative rather than deepen it.

The concentrated feeling that the film conjures during Margaret’s episodes trains the audience to lean in whenever Spielberg and Koepp clear away the action scene debris and narrow in on a character simply delivering information. This makes the film’s incredible conclusion even more effective, as it takes on a tense, at-times upsetting quality the closer we get to the credits. But at the same time, the ending somehow manages to be utterly powerful and unexpectedly emotional (actress Courtney Grace must be commended for her incredible performance as an unnamed NBC anchor, conveying information to both her viewers and the film’s audience with a gravity that’s necessary for the finale to work).

Spielberg wraps up his latest sci-fi adventure with a plea for us to really open up and hear each other, without fear of being duped, taken advantage of, or mocked. In this day and age, that’s a tough sell, and this mysterious, at times imperceptible movie isn’t easy. But the more treacherous the journey, the more sweet the reward when it finishes. Such is the ultimate effect of Disclosure Day, a great film from our greatest director that feels guaranteed to only get better the more people discuss it and mull over its intentions. In other words, it serves as an amazing way to bring people together, allowing them to do what humans do best: talk about our own existence, and what we can do to make it easier and better for as many as possible.

Grade: A-

Universal Pictures will release Disclosure Day only in theaters on June 12.

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Cody Dericks

Cody Dericks has been obsessed with movies and awards ever since he first grabbed a giant coffee table book about the Oscars at the Scholastic Book Fair. He’s been consuming every type of film ever since. In addition, he’s an avid theatre lover and always has thoughts and opinions on all things to do with Broadway and the Tony Awards.

He currently resides in Chicago and is a proud member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. He also writes and podcasts for Next Best Picture and co-hosts his own podcast “Halloweeners: A Horror Movie Podcast.” You can follow him on Twitter, Letterboxd, and Bluesky @codymonster91

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