Spielberg’s Disclosure Day

Every generation has its own paranoid search for the truth regarding aliens among us. The 1960s had The Invaders. The 1970s saw Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters. The 1980s brought us V, while the 1990s really doubled down with The X-Files and Men in Black. Plus, maybe Roswell hit its stride in the 2000s. Heck, there was even Fallen Skies in the 2010s.  Now, Spielberg takes another bite out of the alien conspiracy apple. Perhaps inevitably, his return to science fiction shares many similarities with some of the aforementioned. Happily, his filmmaking chops remain undiminished, but frustratingly, David Koepp’s screenplay offers few opportunities for the Spielbergian sense of wonder in Disclosure Day, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Dr. Daniel Kellner and his colleagues tried to “quietly quit” double-secret alien tech contractor Wardex, but the boss, Noah Scanlon was not having it—particularly not from an asset like Kellner. The scientist has a truly uncanny ability to analyze numbers. However, he and his fellow corporate dissidents, led by senior Wardex exec Hugo Wakefield, realized the public deserves to learn the truth about UAPs and alien biologics. In fact, Kellner was the one who stole the files for their planned document dump, so Scanlon kidnapped his girlfriend Jane Blankenship as leverage.

Yet, Kellner is more resourceful than he looks. He also has Kansas City weather teleprompter-reader Margaret Fairchild to warn him of any danger. They never met and have no idea who the other is. However, Fairchild just experienced a massive awakening of ESP powers that make Professor X look like a carnival fortune teller.

So, nothing totally unprecedented, right? What really stand out are the scenes of Scanlon “diving”’ into targeted minds. Essentially, through the use alien tech, he forges a predatory mental connection, for the sake of extracting information and even turning his victims into killers. These sequences even have a bit of a Scanners vibe, but that is not a bad thing.

Admittedly, Spielberg directs the heck out of a lot of scenes. The way he depicts Fairchild’s use of her new mystery powers is also dazzlingly cinematic. However, there is no big cosmic wonder. Ironically (given the subject matter), Disclosure Day feels weirdly small in scope. It is also somewhat anti-climatic and misleading. It promises to chronicle the sociological implications of big “D” disclosure, but it never gets that far. Instead, we get the highly conventional thrills of files uploading to satellite feeds.

Clearly, the cast was inspired by Spielberg. Josh O’Connor portrays Kellner as a twitchy oddball, who is still sympathetic in an underdog kind of way. Emily Blunt impresses with the boldness of Fairchild’s nervous breakdown. When you think about, most movie characters are unrealistically pragmatic when forced to become fugitives. In real life, a lot of people would similarly curl up into the fetal position. Likewise, Colin Firth’s Scanlon is a refreshingly complex villain and his portrayal is surprisingly physical.

Jaws @ 50, on Hulu

This Blockbuster hasn’t aged day in the fifty years since it first released. That’s because the shark doesn’t care what kind of smart phone you carry or whether you drive an EV. You’ll still taste the same once you get into the water. It inspired one under-appreciated sequel and two truly terrible bombs, but the original will always be the greatest shark movie of all time. For the golden anniversary, cast, crew, fans, and the Benchley family look back on the film’s production and sensational reception in Laurent Bouzereau’s Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, which premieres tomorrow on Hulu.

Surely, everyone has seen the film, or at least knows the music (duly discussed by John Williams). Unfortunately, primary cast-members Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Murry Hamilton (the sleazebag mayor) are no longer with us, while Richard Dreyfuss was either unavailable or considered too canceled. However, viewers hear extensively from Steven Spielberg and author Peter Benchley’s surviving family.

Fittingly, Bouzereau starts with the book, which was a hit even before the film released. In fact, the studio adapted the publisher’s jacket art for the movie poster” the iconic giant shark ominously rising beneath an oblivious swimmer paddling above the waterline. Believe me, that never happens for publishing houses.

Frankly, despite the documentary’s suggestions otherwise, Benchley’s novel was not particularly well reviewed at the time and has not critically appreciated over time. Nevertheless, Spielberg offered his services after reading a galley and accepted the job when the first director pulled out. Unfortunately, when the book became such a runaway bestseller in mass market, the studio moved up production, leaving little time for the construction of the notorious mechanical shark. According to the surviving crew, that is why “Bruce” constantly broke down.

Jaws @ 50 is considerably more fun than most behind-the-scenes docs or DVD extras (which Bouzereau is no stranger to), in large part because of the sharks, real and animatronic. It also chronicles an incredibly stressful shoot that Spielberg feared might end his career. Mind-blowingly, Bouzereau documents the set visits from his famous filmmaker friends, like George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and John Milius, who came to offer encouragement.

The reminiscences also take on a family vibe from the Benchleys, who later became active shark conservationists, and Martha’s Vineyard locals, who played many roles on both sides of the camera. In fact, only eight cast-members came from outside the island. One of whom was Susan Backlinie, who sadly passed away last year, but fortunately Bouzereau incorporates footage of her discussing her role of Chrissie Watkins, the shark’s first victim during the memorable prologue.

The Bloody Hundredth, on Apple TV+

They did it the hard way, which was the right way and the American way. The 100^th U.S. Army Air Force Bombardment Division flew in broad daylight, carefully bombing legitimate military targets. As a result, they suffered tremendously high mortality rates. In contrast, British Bomber Command flew night missions, largely dropping their payloads anywhere in the vicinity of large urban areas. You can directly compare the Hundredth’s conduct during WWII to that of the IDF’s today, conscientiously striving to minimize civilian casualties, despite the elevated risks for their own. The Hundredth’s service and heroism have been dramatized in the amazing nine-part series Masters of the Air. In addition to the concluding episode, Laurent Bouzereau & Mark Herzog’s one-hour companion documentary, The Bloody Hundredth also premieres today on Apple TV+.

Sadly, neither Maj. Gale “Buck” Cleven or Maj. John “Bucky” Egan, the two most prominent Airmen featured in Masters of the Air, are still with us. However, Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal and Harry Crosby, who also played significant roles in the series, discuss their wartime experiences at length.

The veterans of the 100^th make a critical point that is not readily apparent from the series. The skeleton of the famous B17 consisted of aluminum rather than steel, so any kind of ordinance would cut right through it. They took a lot of fire and a lot of flak—and did not always live to talk about it.

Bloody Hundredth provides a concise but descriptive recap of the missions chronicled in the series. At times the scenes of aerial combat are so impressive and immersive in Masters of the Air, viewers might lose sight of the bigger picture, with respect to the overall tides of war. Bloody Hundredth provides wider context, explaining how the Hundredth needed to control the skies of Europe, to secure the Normandy landing.

NYFF ’15: Bridge of Spies

In 1986, Soviet Refusenik Natan Sharansky gained his freedom through the final Cold War exchange conducted on Berlin’s Glienicke Bridge. Brooklyn attorney James B. Donovan found himself negotiating the first. At trial, he had represented convicted Soviet spy Col. Vilyam Fisher, a.k.a. Rudolf Abel, a British born KGB agent, who had narrowly escaped Stalin’s purges during his time with the NKVD. Presumably, the Russians will want him back, just as America wants Francis Gary Powers safely returned. To negotiate the deal in his unofficial capacity, Donovan navigates the murky political waters of Berlin during the final days of the construction of the Wall in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies (trailer here), which screens as a Main Slate selection of the 53rd New York Film Festival.

Donovan the kind of stickler lawyer you do not want to be haggling with. Since he was also a junior member of the Nuremberg prosecution team, the Brooklyn Bar helpfully nominates him as Abel’s attorney. Although not thrilled, Donovan does his duty more diligently than anyone anticipates. Nevertheless, Abel is convicted, but conveniently not sentenced to death.

Sometime after U-2 pilot Powers’ capture and show trial, Donovan receives a strange overture from East Germany. With the CIA’s blessing but no official portfolio, Donovan tries to negotiate an Abel-for-Powers deal, but it is complicated by the arrest of American economics student Frederic Pryor on transparently bogus espionage charges. Suddenly the dodgy Wolfgang Vogel representing the GDR wants to swap Pryor for Abel, while the Berlin KGB station chief is willing to deal Powers for Abel.

While there is a bit of le Carré equivalency baked into screenwriters Matt Charman and Joel & Ethan Cohen’s depiction of the respective intelligence agencies, there is no denying the oppressive bleakness of East Berlin. Production designer Adam Stockhausen’s team vividly recreates the rubble strewn streets, bombed out blocks, and ominously imposing Berlin Wall. To his credit, Spielberg also shows exactly what happened to those who tried to scale it.

Of course, Donovan is exactly the sort of exceptional everyman that has become Hanks’ specialty. While he brings an instant credibility and a certain comfort level to the character, he never delivers any surprises—only sniffles as Donovan endures an awful cold. On the other hand, Mark Rylance is weirdly mesmerizing as the off-center Abel, precisely because of his restraint. It is like his face is a Rorschach test, which you cannot stop staring at.

For traditional villainy, Sebastian Koch chews plenty of scenery as Vogel, but he gets somewhat shortchanged on screen time. However, nobody is as embarrassingly unnecessary as Amy Ryan, playing an underwritten Mary Donovan, whose sole function in the film is to hassle her husband to bring back Harrods marmalade from his supposed fishing trip to Scotland.

Thanks to Stockhausen and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, Bridge looks terrific, but it is relentlessly over-scored by Thomas Newman. Instead of evoking a noir atmosphere, he indulges in symphonic sentimentality. Granted, it is a Spielberg movie, but it sounds too much like a Spielberg movie. Just imagine what could have been if someone like the great Tomasz Stanko (a Krzysztof Komeda protégé) had composed its themes instead. Regardless, there is plenty of striking work on view, including that of Mr. Dreamworks himself, who still has eerily keen instincts for maximizing the emotional impacts of his shots. Recommended for reasonably enthusiastically for fans of Spielberg and espionage movies, Bridge of Spies screens again tonight (10/5) at Alice Tully Hall as part of the 2015 NYFF, in advance of its October 16^th theatrical release.