‘Disclosure Day’ Review: Spielberg’s Latest Echoes Close Encounters

Steven Spielberg has returned to alien-contact stories several times, and each one feels tied to a personal concern about childhood or adult responsibilities. War of the Worlds (2005) framed an alien invasion as a divorced father reconnecting with his son; E.T.

(1982) channels Spielberg’s feelings about his parents’ divorce; and in 1977’s Close Encounters Roy Neary is compelled to abandon his family, a possible subconscious statement about following storytelling ambitions over starting a family. Nearly 50 years after Close Encounters, Disclosure Day expands Spielberg’s extraterrestrials-on-Earth fixation beyond the Taylor family and awe-struck scientists to ask whether humanity is ready to know its place in the universe.

The film plays as a straight-ahead thriller—entertaining and finely crafted, with strong performances, especially from Emily Blunt—but it often feels like a ’70s conspiracy picture rather than the more reflective movie Close Encounters suggests Spielberg might make today.

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