Eli

Scattered with tropes and on the nose plotting, but still manages to build its own fascinating world that has an on edge but also exciting nature of rigidness to its conduct and convention. Constant paranoia and fear put onto them in the midst of a dystopian life as short as it gets, but also actively exploring a unique world that builds upon itself with new surprises each step into its hellscape you take. There’s definitely a lot more themes and existential questions they could’ve gotten to the bottom of with this film instead of playing it safe with a classic “on the run” action thriller, but I think regardless, the atmosphere uses the wonder of sci-fi pretty well in creating something that envisions the heightened reality of human corruption through the genre’s imaginative possibilities.

Some interesting elements of family history importance and the sort of ignorance in childhood for your mind to ignore the true value of things like that, but this still left a lot to be desired. From a narrative standpoint it didn’t feel personal enough with all the plot cliches thrown in between and struggled to find its own personality beyond those cliches used. Some useful sources of inspiration in here though like fun montages or tracking shots. A lot of potential for [Zack](https://boxd.it/dxhT7) regardless if he keeps honing in on the craft and ideas

The central thesis statement of this film has always been from the jump what exactly it means for us to reveal truth, specifically when that truth reveals the most haunting tales of our lives, pain, insecurities that could all alter our perception of someone or things around the world that we believe we’re not mentally prepared to fathom. We want the vulnerability and honesty that connection between people or places that truth brings us, but is it worth slipping off that mask you once concealed out of shame and fear that you believe will separate you from that past life of comfortability if you choose to reveal that truth? It’s an endless paradox of the fact that the truth will set you free, but can we handle the insurmountable weight of that truth. What Spielberg further explores through this film is what happens when that truth is first understood to us. Being in conversation directly with Close Encounters, it once again poses the dilemma of the possibility of alien life form but concealed from the public because of being hidden far in the hands of an unsure government. Beyond intersecting with Close Encounters narrative, this reminds me a lot of Scorsese and Schrader’s *The Last Temptation Of Christ, *with them using our personal view of our world around to rationalize how a higher life form or being operates that we once thought was beyond comprehension. Despite feeling that grand scale of weight above natural life and many instances, much of alien mind and concepts surrounding them in this film conceived by Spielberg is taken from a piece of human life. Communication, religion, processing trauma and all in between - all alien and supernatural capability is sourced to guide human life and the concepts surrounding it we live in everyday. Back to temptation of Christ, it felt like Scorsese voiced his concerns about society and an incompetent world around us through how Jesus viewed it and his supernatural being perception of understanding it so well to know the cure to our incoherence. And maybe aliens aren’t exactly God, but maybe they have the powers to aid and guide us through the help of being another life form we never knew we needed or just simply didn’t know how to utilize well. Disclosure Day voices many of the concerns and outrage over human nature corruption through things like government outrage or how we can’t shed our pain and trauma. For years, government exploitation or mismanagement of key information has held us back because. The exploitation comes from an abuse of power but the abuse of power comes from a more naive thing out of our complete control - fear. Governments fear the power of aliens they don’t know or understand so they revert immediately to self defense by gaining any leverage over the aliens that they can by surpressing their power immediately. Humans like Margret or Daniel still are skeptics of the idea of alien companions because the power overwhelms them. We’re so used to handling trauma or pain our own, processing it through an incoherent storm by ourselves as only humans to help that another life form beguiles us and puts us at a mercy of fear, scared that someone else gets access to our trauma that we haven’t built years of trust or experience with. Spielberg takes our collective societal problems and combines it with something as imaginatively powerful as aliens to envision a future where the two can weather the storm of darkness to create a better world with a concrete new perspective of life forms not yet too blinded by the chaos of earth to see things in an entirely clear headspace. And I get the flaws some have with the script. Some of concepts of the film and key “theories” about aliens get muddled in general ideas or vagueness rather than a fully fleshed out explanation over how exactly these alien forms operate. It’s a weighty script with balancing so many different sides of our place in the world so maybe Spielberg bites off a bit more than he can chew at times. Obviously Koepp’s dialogue screenplay falling into hints of formulaic tone to finish off Spielberg’s conception of this idea could be a complaint too, but man I’d be lying if I didn’t say there was a plethora of moments that had me in awe or smiling ear to ear that couldn’t make me think any less of this movie.

Somehow manages to be a disturbing and gripping thriller keeping you on your toes while simultaneously deconstructing how this cycle of violence continues through the rigid and dehumanizing prison system. Walks that line of uncompromising thrills from the dreadful atmosphere but also reveals a slither of tragic reality in all of them raised by the violence of a toxic male culture and institution that neglects mental well being. Such a confident vision and technical team around him as well for a debut. Cal has a strong ceiling of potential. [Full review here ](https://cinephilecircle.jimdofree.com/2026/06/11/review-wasteman/)