by Jake Hjort, contributing writer
Though nothing in Hollywood (or life, for that matter) is a sure thing, everyone now and then comes a film that feels as though it’s destined for greatness. Steven Spielberg directing a sci-fi summer blockbuster starring some of the best actors working today? How could that not be awesome? Well, such is the recipe for Disclosure Day, the latest marquee event of the summer. Does it have what it takes to meet those lofty expectations that I (and presumably many others) are taking into it, or will this be just a footnote in the ledger of Spielberg’s legacy?
Set in present-day America amidst the backdrop of a looming war in the Korean peninsula, Disclosure Day is a science fiction conspiracy thriller with a lot of big ideas that it wants to get across. Our two central characters are Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), a genius mathematician and whistleblower from military contractor Wardex, and Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a meteorologist for a Kansas City TV station who finds herself developing inexplicable connections with those around her. Opposing them Is Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), the director of Wardex who is desperately trying to keep his company’s secrets from becoming public information.
Normally I like to provide a bit more of a plot synopsis when I’m writing a review, but Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp do such a fantastic job divulging information that I really think it’s best to go into this as blind as possible (continue reading at your own risk). There’s no narration or exposition dumps at the opening of the film, but rather you are thrust right into this world, with some elements of the story explained in ways that make sense to the plot and with others left as mysteries to uncover as the story unfolds. This drip-feeding of information continues to build until the film’s climax when we reach the titular “disclosure day” and long-kept secrets are finally made public. This sequence is far-and-away my favorite portion of the film, with alternating shots of the news broadcast, the scrambling control room, and the mouth-agape public glued to their television sets really selling the magnitude of the revelations being spread.
Speaking of favorites, I can’t go any further in this review without extolling the performance of Emily Blunt. Blunt is a fantastic actress who has been putting in great work for two decades now, but I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the best performance of her career. Based on the marketing I had been led to believe that O’Connor’s character would be the protagonist but, while that may still be true, Blunt steals every single scene that she’s in and Margaret is the clear emotional center of the film. The range of emotions that she experiences and portrays is incredible, as is her ability to pivot from great physical comedy to drama within a scene. Blunt is the heart and soul of this movie and, though the year is only half through, I will be shocked if she isn’t part of the awards conversations early next year.
Of course, there are a lot of great supporting performances, outside of Blunt, worth mentioning as well. My favorite among them is Courtney Grace, an actress I was otherwise unfamiliar with who portrays the newscaster who anchors the film’s climactic broadcast. As I said before, this is one of my favorite scenes of the film, and her performance is a big reason why, watching as she struggles to maintain composure and professionalism as she grapples with her own shifting world view. As the leader of the Whistleblower movement Coleman Domingo is as great as ever and Firth, though the writing of his character doesn’t always work for me, gets a few scenes where he really gets to show off his chops.
Unfortunately, this brings me to the one performance/character that didn’t really work for me at all: Josh O’Connor/Daniel Kellner. After he gave one of my favorite performances of 2024 and 2025 in both Challengers and Wake Up Dead Man, I have to admit that I had high hopes for him to do it again. However, I found Daniel to be aggressively bland as a character, lacking a lot of the emotional nuance that I’ve come to expect from O’Connor. There are a couple scenes where he gets to show a bit more range, but in those I don’t really buy his outbursts or feel what he is trying to convey, especially when compared to his costars. I think that this is as much an issue of the writing as it is the acting, as Daniel is given a lot less to do than Margaret is, but overall, I’m left disappointed with the end result.
Thematically, Disclosure Day is certainly trying to take some big swings. The film largely centers around the ideas of belief, understanding, and empathy, hitting at the importance of each in multiple different ways. Overall, I think that these messages are well conveyed, especially through Blunt’s performance, but it does hit a point where there are so many different ideas being thrown at you that it’s impossible for them all to stick. Other’s mileage may vary given their own lived experiences, but there were several scenes and conversations that I could tell were trying to hammer home these messages, but I couldn’t quite understand how they fit into the greater picture.
Lastly, without going into too much detail, I want to take a moment to praise the film’s ending. Aside from the amazing broadcast sequence that I’ve shouted out before, there’s a sense of underlying ambiguity that permeates throughout the film and really drives home as the credits roll, leaving you questioning the intentions of certain characters and entities. Though not the most explicit, I find this to be the film’s most interesting way of communicating it’s themes, separating the audience into optimists and cynics—into believers and non-believers.
Though there are some aspects of Disclosure Day that hit better than others, the vibes are immaculate and best moments and performances are some of the finest that you’ll see all year. Spielberg’s had a few duds recently, but it’s certainly no surprise that he still has the ability to make a great film, especially when surrounded by longtime collaborators such as Koepp, John Williams, and Janusz Kaminiski. Is this one of the best films of Spielberg’s career? No, I don’t think I could put it up there with his earlier works. But is this one of his best films of this century? Absolutely.
Rating: Low Side of Loved It
Disclosure Day is currently in theaters
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