I watched Disclosure Day
A few weeks ago, I saw that the film was available on Amazon for £9.99 and I asked on Bluesky whether it was worth a look at that price. The consensus was no, and I’m glad I waited because now you can rent it for £5.99, which is more reasonable.
But I wanted to see it, because it’s a Spielberg science fictioner, and I was intrigued – rather than put off – by how much it has divided opinion. Looking back over Spielberg’s filmography, the last one I bothered with was Bridge of Spies, which was over 10 years ago. And although Ready Player One (2018) was science fiction, I gave up on it after about 10 minutes, so it’s not like I’m a committed fan. But Disclosure Day was a Spielberg science fictioner, and I had a feeling. Not enough of a feeling to put up with going to the cinema*, but I was waiting till I could rent it.
And it has indeed divided opinion.
For example, Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian described it as “very enjoyable and entirely ridiculous” in a largely positive review. Simon Mayo called it “an action movie about empathy” with “empathy as a superpower”, and although it is “old fashioned”, it still provides enough Spielberg magic in “this film at this time” that he would want to take the family to see it.
Mark Kermode, on the same podcast, eventually got around to saying these words in approximately this order: “really good popcorn Friday night multiplex pleasing romping adventure movie”—but added that, in 2026, “the action of the third act makes no sense at all” because we’ve all known for years that the Roswell crash and the crop circles are hoaxes, and that to imagine that the world would react in the way it does in the film to the disclosure is “very, very old-fashioned”.
And then there’s the discourse on the socials, which consists of a lot of people complaining that the film represents two hours and twenty minutes of their lives they’re never getting back; complaining about the ending especially.
So that’s my literature survey, and it helps me explain to myself why I wanted to see it. Because, if you know me, you know that:
- I really prefer television to movies.
- I hate movies that are too long, and most of them are.
- I almost never actually enjoy a movie made in the 21st century.
Listen, I’ve studied Film at Masters level, I’ve published in academic journals, I co-founded the first online Film Studies journal; I’ve taught Film and Media Studies, and you’d be forgiven for thinking I was one of those film guys. But I’m not. And I can remember precisely when it was I completely lost interest in the modern film industry. It was when Marvel announced they had 38 more superhero films in the pipeline, at a time when I was already thoroughly sick to the back teeth of superhero movies.
(I’m also aware that a lot of the interesting stuff getting made these days is in the horror genre, but I have almost no interest in that genre. It has rarely delivered for me.)
Anyway. I realise that the reason I wanted to see Disclosure Day was because I had the sense that it was old-fashioned, that it is the kind of film Spielberg used to make in the 1970s, pre-ET, even, and I quite fancied seeing something like that. A sort-of sequel to Close Encounters, as a lot of people have pointed out. Or, more unkindly, it’s exactly the same plot.
So to the film itself. I’ll say this about it. It was indeed two hours and twenty minutes – way too long – but even though I am Mr Ninety Minutes, I didn’t really notice. I felt it motored along quite nicely, that there were no longeurs, and I wasn’t bored or thrashing about with my usual frustration.
A confession: I more or less completely missed the background plot of nuclear standoff over North Korea. I did notice the people in the supermarket were in a frenzy, but I completely ignored what the various news anchors were saying—in much the same way as I’ve been ignoring news anchors for about 20 years.
The film isn’t perfect. The ending felt peremptory—a bit rushed, even in something that comes in well over two hours. And obviously our contemporary media landscape is such that the disclosure wouldn’t land like that. But the point of the film is to remind us that we are better than we currently are being. The message is, do better. The message is, remember that empathy is not a weakness, like the Ayn Rand-pilled billionaire tech bros say.
Good old-fashioned fun, with the Greys straight out of Whitley Strieber via The X Files, and the Roswell crash and the crop circles used as short cuts—no need to go over this old ground again, but you remember this, right?
The film forgets about the character of Jane (Eve Hewson), who, it turns out is not so much the whistleblower Daniel Kellner’s (Josh O’Connor) girlfriend so much as a plot device. Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) also had a boyfriend (Wyatt Russell), who turned out to be untrustworthy, and another plot device.
Some underdeveloped characters, then, which is not a surprise because this is a movie and not a TV show.
The aliens, too, aren’t very alien, and I feel like science fiction has moved beyond these basic portrayals of the Greys with their Communion type experiments. On the other hand, old-fashioned science fiction 1970s fun, and I think the film delivered that. And the scene with the train and the car was properly gripping.
So I enjoyed it, which is so rare for me when it comes to movies.
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*I don’t know, but imagine that there’s a risk these days that when you go to the cinema that not only are people going to be talking and using their phones, and not only will the venue smell of rancid fat, but that people will also be filming themselves for the socials. Imagining all this makes me shudder, which is before we get to how much it would cost to be in there surrounded by these types of people. I would rather be vivisected by aliens.
#disclosureDay #emilyBlunt #film #movies #ScienceFiction #SF #Spielberg #stevenSpielberg
