Editor’s Note: Freeline Media critic Mike Fried is offering his thoughts on two hot movie topics: Steven Spielberg’s controversial new film Disclosure Day, and bratty kids in the cinema. Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
Disclosure Day
4.5/5
Okay, so let’s not bury the lede. Is this Steven Spielberg’s best movie in the last two decades?
Absolutely not.
Bridge of Spies and The Post in 2016 and 2017 were pretty darn incredible.
Having said that, this movie was as good as those — so, best movie in a decade?
Ok, I can buy that.
Daniel Kellner steals classified files from the (evil!) Wardex Corporation relating to extraterrestrial incidents and technology that date back to 1947 (Roswell, for those not up on their lore). Noah Scanlon, CEO of Wardex and, hence, evil, has Daniel branded as a spy.
In Kansas City during s weather report, meteorologist Margaret Fairchild begins speaking in an unknown language. Evil Scanlon recognizes it as extraterrestrial. And both Daniel and Margaret are on the run. Of course, the Wardex company name is an acronym that stands for “Waived Reporting, Development, and Extraction.” In this case, he aims to extract Daniel and Margaret.
I’m not going to deal in any more facts so as not to unveil spoilers; but suffice it to say that this movie has expanded Spielberg’s “Running Man” trilogy (AI: Artificial Intelligence; Minority Report; Catch Me If You Can) into a Quartet – or Quadrilogy, if you prefer (sounds snazzier).
The truth belongs to eight million people, according to Daniel; but also according to Spielberg, based on interviews he has given. And that forms the basis of the film. No one doubts alien life — no sane person does — and therefore the existence of alien life shouldn’t be kept secret. Simple, right?
Maybe not so much.
Give credit where credit is due. Spielberg is at his best and most creative with science fiction, mirroring the movies he grew up with in his youth. And with a screenwriter like David Koepp, who can write about almost anything and do it well, there really is little left to chance, although the poor guy had to write 42 drafts of the screenplay.
And the film is not just an action film or a sci-fi film. Koepp and Spielberg hit moral issues as well, making the film more humanistic than its previous incarnations. As Daniel’s girlfriend Jane (a former novitiate) puts it, “People have been believing in a supreme being and now you’re going to show them that there are beings who are really supreme.” That is the core of the quandary placed in its context.
Emily Blunt is fantastic as Margaret. She brings an earnestness to her role as she navigates what is happening to her. She doesn’t understand it and she is scared; but under Spielberg’s direction, she also has some pretty funny moments, like trying to destroy her phone so she can’t be tracked. She tells her musician boyfriend that this is the thing she was meant for, that she’s in the flow, just like when he is playing music. Yet when she is confronted with her past and the notion that she is central to these mysteries, she lashes out, “I will not be anyone’s religion.” She is so good that the widely advertised scene where she speaks an alien language was supposed to be AI enhanced; instead, Blunt used her vocal training to create a distinct set of vocalizations and performed them in a single four-minute long take. Incredible.
Josh O’Connor is equally terrific as Daniel, bringing a sense of perplexity as he discovers his connection with Margaret. In a particularly eerie scene, he is sent the video of Margaret speaking in tongues and he hears it in English and can’t believe that the person who sent it to him can’t understand it. He is really good – but this is Blunt’s movie.
However, all movies are only as good as their antagonists, and in Colin Firth’s Noah Scanlon, this film has a doozy. Firth has played bad guys before, but he has never played a character this vituperously evil. His company has been hoarding alien technology, and he has been using it for his own ends to cover up alien existence. Now, he wants to locate Daniel by homing in on his girlfriend Jane and taking over her mind to get her to kill Daniel. “The knowledge that Kellner stole is a virus that will destroy humanity” he loudly proclaims.
Speaking of Jane, she is wonderfully played by Eve Hewson. She is fierce and determined and, in a way, stronger than Daniel so she is a perfect complement to him. — unlike Wyatt Russell who, as Margaret’s boyfriend, is less than supportive.
And then there’s Colman Domingo as Hugo, the former Wardex Special Ops guy who has gone rogue and appears to be the lifeline for Daniel and Margaret. But is he really? When he refers to the house that is being built around him as a “staging area,” one must wonder. But not for long.
The film is beautifully photographed by longtime Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kamínski and there are a lot of big camera pans and camera work that highlights the action scenes, especially the chase scenes. And it’s aided quite nicely by the editing of Sarah Broshar who has worked with Spielberg since War Horse. The production design by Adam Stockhausen, who similarly worked for Spielberg previously (but who has also more famously worked with Wes Anderson and won an Oscar for The Grand Budapest Hotel) is also fantastic. The Wardex War Room stands out as a singular achievement in high tech production design with computer screens from floor to ceiling and display changes that happen lightning fast — as would be appropriate for a corporation involved in high tech quasi-governmental work.
This movie will draw comparisons to Close Encounters and ET and that’s not necessarily a bad thing; however, this movie is not a sequel to either film, but, rather, a logical extension of them both. ET was a child’s story writ large and Close Encounters was a mystical – some people say religious – experience. Disclosure Day really is none of those except for showcasing Spielberg and Koepp’s disdain for governmental or quasi-governmental heavy-handedness. As he said in a recent interview with TCM’s Ben Mankiewicz, this information belongs to the people. Maybe Spielberg is an alien, I don’t know. But he gets a certain joy out of the mystical and we are all better for it. There are scenes that are vintage Spielberg but rendered so new and well done.
If I had one complaint it is that one of the character arcs is not brought to a satisfactory conclusion in the third act and that kind of struck me as hollow, as if to say, maybe no one will notice. Well, I did.
There is, though, a blink and you will miss it reference to Close Encounters in the film – hell, with my eyes open I almost missed it.
Nevertheless, the ending of this movie was absolutely spellbinding, and I hope that if and when there is a real disclosure day that our reactions are all the same.
WATCH IT!
Warning: Annoying child alert!
P.S.: To the lady who brought her two-year-old kid who wouldn’t shut up, shame on you; but at least you had the good sense to walk out of the movie theater within 20 minutes.
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.
