DISCLOSURE DAY REVIEW: TRUTH IS NOT A PRODUCT

If the theory holds that David Lynch and Steven Spielberg are two sides of the same coin, the cinematic dyad of the New Hollywood in the 70s and 80s, then Disclosure Day is Spielberg’s Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). 

This is not to say that it’s his best work like The Return might be Lynch’s, but that this film is a culminating spiritual sequel to the entire Oeuvre that came before it. Everything from the serious art of The Post (2017) to the alien majesty of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) to the moralistic action of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) to the goody foibles of Ready Player One (2018). There is no film with more “Spielberg Face,” no director more in his element, and no guarantee that this film gets the audience that it deserves. While Curry Barker (Obsession) and Kane Parsons (Backrooms) are selling out house shows, the greatest mystery of Disclosure Day is if audiences will show up to Steven Spielberg’s metaphorical arena act. And what an act it is. 

Full disclosure: This film is an excellent sci-fi tale all the way down to its genre bones. This is a film about the government cover-up of extraterrestrial life. Like all good sci-fi, it is both dramatically oiled and tuned to its own surface reality, while commenting on the fears of the present through obfuscation. 

Obfuscation. This is a plot about obfuscation and the control of information. Josh O’Connor (Challengers; Wake Up Dead Man:  A Knives Out Mystery) will be referred to as a Snowden figure, but Elesberg is the better comparison. Spielberg, who previously made a film about Elesberg, is very much talking about leaking the existence of little green men like they’re The Pentagon Papers. 

O’Connor’s leaker is being directed by a mastermind played by the ever-excellent Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Michael), who keeps O’Connor in the dark to keep their scheme unpredictable. The Dictable-in-chief is played by Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman: The Secret Service), who doesn’t believe that humanity can handle the truth. Eve Hewson (Jay Kelly, Bridge of Spies) is the woman caught between them, and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Edge of Tomorrow) turns in a career-best performance as a weatherwoman who isn’t sure what’s going to happen next.

Also singing backup are Wyatt Russel (Thunderbolts, Everybody Wants Some) as a hilarious loser, Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Now You See Me 2) as the film’s heavy, and the Nickel Boys’ (2024) Brandon Wilson earning his paycheck, It’s a sweeping cast of faces. An all-time deployment of faces actually. Fans of that shot from AI where David is seen through a fluted glass door will find Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski (Minority Report, Munich) in a similar visual register. From the start, panes of glass build the language of Disclosure Day with a window wet not from rain, but with drops of bokeh. “What do you see?” asks the camera. “What is plain apparent” replies the film’s frame. It’s sublime. 

There is no MAGA in the world of Disclosure Day. There are, however, red hats with American flags in every conservative-coded locale. There is no invasion of Iran, but Russia, China, and the two Koreas are on the brink of a 3rd World War. A brink explicitly compared to the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are no Evangelical reactionaries, but there is Catholic nunnery afoot. 

Like both The War of the Worlds (1953) and War of the Worlds (2005), like all Body Snatchers films and Night of the Living Dead (1968), Disclosure Day is political in nature, but not nakedly. As the Federal Workers and Private Contractors argue about “the right to know,” Epstein, The Pentagon Papers, the Exxon study, and the R.J. Reynolds cover-up all come to mind for those who’ve read them. Steven Spielberg believes in aliens, yes. But he also believes in truth and common decency and wonder, and with screenwriter David Koepp (Mission: Impossible, Jurassic Park) he pens his plea for pleasantry and perseverance. 

That plea is both the strength and the weakness of the film. Like many great late-state directors, occasionally logic, or more precisely, the sequential disclosure of exposition is coaled to fire the engine of emotional truth. Certain revelations are gestured at in a way that may leave the more logic-focused viewer feeling blindsided. But for the receptive experiencer, this plea can pass cringe by and arrive at real spectacle. 

Obviously, Spielberg's history of alien films and Amblin nostalgia play a factor in this film. But if anything, Josh O’Connor’s Daniel Kellner is Indiana Jones for the modern day, though sidelined into an ensemble instead of holding the center. Where once, the silver screen declared “It belongs in a museum,” today it refutes: “Wardex can’t own it anymore than they can own air. Or light.” This is a battle for the concept of culture. 

The great liberal myth is that crisis unites us. Maybe that’s why Spielberg wishes he’d seen an alien, and why both parties in the American political system seem to think we should be more interested in the question of alien life than the question of healthcare bills and the commodification of our eyes. Steven Spielberg wishes he had seen an alien. Trump and Obama agree on showing us. Everyone wants an explanation greater than our own limitations to describe the moment we’re living in. 

Maybe that’s why Disclosure Day feels so of the moment and out of it at the same time. It asks not just are aliens real, but is God, and is our government at odds with God? Yes, screams Spielberg. Yes, screams the truth. No, screams the worshippers. Yes, says God. Yes says the silver screen. Yes, cries the prophet of the blockbuster, returning once more with a very good movie.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Disclosure Day opens in theaters on Thursday, June 10th, 2026.

Visit disclosuredaymovie.com for tickets and showtimes.

TRAILER: https://youtu.be/UFe6NRgoXCM?si=rBJehPGg5NstR72j