{"id":733114,"date":"2026-06-13T02:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733114\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T02:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T02:38:13","slug":"disclosure-day-movie-review-steven-spielbergs-latest-film-was-dubbed-a-misfire-its-the-best-news-for-cinema-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733114\/","title":{"rendered":"Disclosure Day Movie Review: Steven Spielberg\u2019s latest film was dubbed a misfire \u2013 it\u2019s the best news for cinema in decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Review: 2026 is a huge year for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/movies-and-cinema-6i9x\" class=\"sc-iihzTf dklAlE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cinema<\/a> with an incredible slate of films set to hit theatres. One of those films is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/entertainment\/celebrity\/steven-spielberg-weighs-in-on-timothee-chalamet-comments-on-opera-and-ballet-20260316-p5oar2.html\" class=\"sc-iihzTf dklAlE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steven Spielberg<\/a>\u2019s Disclosure Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Spielberg is the man behind some of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/world-news\/the-greatest-movies-of-all-time-top-20-definitive-list-20251118-p5nq3s.html\" class=\"sc-iihzTf dklAlE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the world\u2019s most beloved films<\/a>. He brought us Jaws, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And while many of his films are critically acclaimed, his latest project is dividing audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Director Steven Spielberg on the set of his film DISCLOSURE DAY.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f16312efe8fbd5dc22d0502b615d7b3e9d8ff30a6fb4aa89f1157be32a64526a.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Steven Spielberg&#8217;s name alone is enough to get audiences to cinemas, but people are divided over his latest project.\u00a0Universal Pictures<\/p>\n<p>It seems that no one can agree on Disclosure Day.<\/p>\n<p>Many reviews claim the film is a misfire with a flimsy script that stumbles at the finish line. Some praise the film for providing stunning visuals and a career-best performance from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/entertainment\/celebrity\/devil-wears-prada-2-emily-blunt-career-advice-slammed-out-of-touch-20260501-p5zsvk.html\" class=\"sc-iihzTf dklAlE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Blunt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Others have chosen to dissect the film&#8217;s message; is it simply an exploration of what could happen if we were to discover the cover-up of extraterrestrial life, or does it delve deeper into the effect such a revelation would have on the fabric of religion and our understanding of empathy?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I fit into the category of Disclosure Day lover. The film delivered typical Spielberg spectacle and craftsmanship, as usual, exploring the relationship between the ordinary and the extraordinary.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But what this film lacks compared to others from Spielberg\u2019s catalogue is a neatly wrapped ending with a bow placed on top.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Without giving anything away, the end of this film is ambiguous. It\u2019s open to interpretation and designed to make audiences think not just about the resolution of the film, but their own relationship with the subject.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As studios have struggled more and more to get audiences to theatres since the pandemic, they\u2019ve <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/entertainment\/we-re-going-to-run-out-of-gas-why-hollywood-needs-to-finally-call-cut-on-reboot-culture-20260605-p604cu.html\" class=\"sc-iihzTf dklAlE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">begun to take smaller swings<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Over recent years, we\u2019ve adjusted to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/entertainment\/celebrity\/project-hail-mary-sequel-details-andy-weir-ryan-gosling-opinion-20260415-p5zonf.html\" class=\"sc-iihzTf dklAlE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">easily digestible films<\/a>. We\u2019ve seen countless remakes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/entertainment\/celebrity\/the-devil-wears-prada-2-review-a-great-nostalgia-hit-but-a-bad-movie-20260429-p5zscb.html\" class=\"sc-iihzTf dklAlE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unnecessary sequels<\/a>, and movies designed to be low-effort viewing in the age of a second-long attention span.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Disclosure Day is none of those things. It\u2019s a two-and-a-half-hour-long think piece, designed to draw the audience in and make them question what exactly they\u2019re watching.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Emily Blunt in Disclosure Day\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ae925874517da073cee92483f966fc293000bee58ceba947891715b76340cbca.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">At bare minimum, Emily Blunt discovers an Oscar nomination for this performance.\u00a0Universal Pictures<\/p>\n<p>Some leave the cinema hopeful, wanting to better understand the people and the world around them. Others walk out with what can only be described as a feeling of existential dread.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s exactly what Disclosure Day sets out to do. It\u2019s not a film designed to desperately pander to mass audiences in the hopes of selling tickets. Instead, it\u2019s designed to make its audience feel something, and if that means its reviews are divisive, then so be it.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you love it or hate it, Disclosure Day is reminiscent of movies made pre-pandemic when theatres were alive and well, and creators were able to take bigger risks.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Center L to R: Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4ddd0043cedf0adc98332e8402bf9d50d7c7bbf0e847420e666feff442bb9b79.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Disclosure Day is a complex story that viewers will need to engage in, not watch in the background while they&#8217;re on their phones.\u00a0Universal Pictures<\/p>\n<p>While many (some might say most) recent projects were designed to spoon-feed audiences plot points and resolutions, Spielberg didn\u2019t make Disclosure Day with a second screen in mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an original concept, not designed to be enjoyed by mass audiences, but simply designed to be seen by mass audiences. It\u2019s a return to cinema as an art form rather than a business, and even though the reviews are mixed, people are already flocking to cinemas to see it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If nothing else, Disclosure Day proves the theory that 2026 is the year that what has recently been considered a dying industry begins its return to its golden age.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Colma Domingo in Disclosure Day\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8f429b74e5a38251305c1404c9261a05c3bfde4d133b27c2943383112b39662f.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Love it or hate it, Disclosure Day is the desperate wake-up call passive viewers desperately need.\u00a0Universal Pictures<\/p>\n<p>With indie films Backrooms and Obsession smashing it at the box office, a new Spielberg and a new Christopher Nolan film set for release, plus the third installation in the Dune series and a new Avengers film set to hit screens, it might be safe to say that 2026 will go down in modern history as the year the blockbuster began its return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Review: 2026 is a huge year for cinema with an incredible slate of films set to hit theatres.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-733114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}