Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

For the uninitiated, alongside my Letterboxd, I also have a website—Nate at the Movies—where I post all my reviews. We’re slowly (and I mean slowly) building a following, but more importantly, my website earned me a coveted spot in the North Texas Film Critics Association, which I have loved being a part of. I’ve gotten to meet with people who share my love of movies, I’ve voted on end-of-year awards (which is extra gratifying, since some Oscars voters have come out and said that they don’t even watch all of the movies that are nominated and I DO), but tonight, for the first time, I got to go to a press screening! I can’t tell you how quickly I reserved my seat when I got that email a month ago, because the screening in question was for Disclosure Day! Steven Spielberg might be my favorite director of all time, so to get to see his newest film early and in a super-nice theater was super cool. Of course, I had a lot of thoughts, but what you need to know before getting into this lengthy review is that I was blown away. Also, be ready for heavy spoilers. Alright, let’s get started.

From the jump, it was clear that Spielberg was bent on maintaining the mystery of the story, and it worked to his advantage. Every trailer was so captivating because they gave away so little, and the beginning of the film was the same way. Spielberg dropped the viewer right into the action—I kept expecting the film to jump back to “where it all started”, but too bad for me. Spielberg wanted the viewer to figure it out slowly, and it made for a rewarding watch. I also enjoyed how patiently the story brought its two leads together, which made their individual journeys more interesting, and the mystery of whatever the hell Hugo was doing the whole time was a fun extra element. Speaking of those leads, the performances were stellar from literally everyone. O’Connor and Domingo were an excellent pair, Colin Firth played a scary, calculated villain so well, Wyatt Russell was absolutely hilarious (in a very “boyfriend from the Bee Movie” kind of way), but it was Emily Blunt who stole the show. She was sincere, funny, and scary in her experiences with the aliens, and she totally deserves an Oscar nomination (I’d say a win at this point, though who knows what’s coming later this year).

As has been the case in every Spielberg alien movie that I’ve seen, every aspect of the aliens’ design was amazing. There were so many unique ideas exercised here, from presenting as animals to the multi-faceted “device” and enabling two hosts to “experience” to help bridge the gap between the aliens and the humans. There were probably a lot of different themes at play here that I’d love to dive deeper into, but the aliens’ culture leading with empathy and the diametrically opposed forces of Scanlon’s fear and Hugo’s wonder and acceptance make me think about the US political landscape and the immigrant experience. That may not be the case for everyone, but I think an alien story begs for that comparison, and Spielberg’s aliens in particular seem to beg for it pretty regularly. Most plainly, this movie asks its viewers and its characters, “What if we’re not alone?”, to which we’d better respond, “We never have been”. We just act like it sometimes.

The first two acts were super patient in their disclosure of information (ha ha), and while inferior directors may have made those acts boring with all of that talking, Spielberg kept the intensity high with some amazing action scenes. No one shoots a blockbuster like Spielberg, and every car chase (and especially the train scene) had me shaking and smiling in my seat. Every scene felt momentous, and I’m not sure what to attribute that to: the direction, John Williams’ excellent score (that I think could’ve been used even more), or this being my first press screening—I was the press, guys! It was the third act, though, that knocked me on my backside. The action and intensity were high, but it was the actual disclosure—and everyone’s reactions to it—that really got me. I was pretty emotional and on the verge of tears as the NBC national news correspondent became visibly shaken by what she was seeing. I had to remind myself at a few points that this wasn’t a historical event; everything felt so real, from the alien footage to the news broadcasts.

I mentioned this earlier, but truly, no one makes them like Spielberg. I just saw Masters of the Universe a few days ago and called that a “real summer blockbuster”, but this put that to shame. Every aspect of Disclosure Day felt so cinematic and monumental, and there are few directors today who can transform their movies in that way. After Spielberg, it may just be Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve (I’m probably forgetting someone, so sorry in advance). It’s unfortunate that a movie as complete and profound and wholly entertaining as Disclosure Day has very little chance of winning Best Picture because it’s coming out the same year as the aforementioned Nolan’s The Odyssey. I would never wish a flop upon Nolan, but maybe I’m wrong and everyone is won over by Disclosure Day. They’d have every right to be; this was an arresting and awe-inspiring watch, and I feel so fortunate to have gotten to see this the way that I did: in a packed theater with amazing sound and hundreds of people that share my obsession with movies. Full disclosure: Disclosure Day was amazing, and I might even go see it again when it comes out this weekend!