disclosure day [2026]
i've long pontificated on the limits of the superbly gifted filmmaker steven spielberg. i've enjoyed his movies for almost as long as i've had a lifetime of watching movies. yet, spielberg often loses balance in his stories. often his films become clunky with a contrived sentimentality. that doesn't mean i don't enjoy his flicks. but often, even in his better movies, suffer from a sublime mawkishness. take for example the red coat girl in Schindler's List [1993], albeit is a powerful image of the brutality of the holocaust but is used as a cudgel to beat over the head of the viewer who need no further imagery as proof of the barbarism we see in the liquidation of the jewish ghetto. or take the heart-light of the alien in e.t. the extraterrestrial [1982], a literary device so blatantly manipulative of the viewer's emotional state. i can go on & on. but my point is thus: spielberg is a master storyteller who can't help himself make emotionally manipulative fictions.
even so, i looked forward to seeing this movie in present discussion. i mean, hell the world is so freaking topsy-turvy it would surprise me none if the next earth-shaking news is evidence of aliens. i don't believe in UFOs, or UAPs as they are called now, but i sure the hell want to see one. i also think, tho without evidence, that we are sure as shit not alone in the universe. i know i know. how the fuck can i know we are not the only intelligent species in the universe. i don't. but i think humanity, unique yes, is not that special. if the universe can create the conditions for life, intelligent life even, here than it most likely can create life elsewhere. problem is time & distance. the universe is fucking big. way bigger than our minds can intuit. so meeting an advanced civilization in the right place at the right time is pretty goddamn astronomically small.
but that's why we have sci-fi so we can imagine it. my nephew, .a., invited me to his downtown flat this afternoon because he wanted, i think, to spend some time with his uncle, & to get my opinion of this movie. a. lives with two hounds, einstein & dora, who greeted me at the door with waggy tails & friendly barks. a. ordered a pizza from a local place which was tasty, put on the flick, & got a big bowl of buttered popcorn. geezus, i was in heaven! buttered popcorn is better than crack & more addicting. also, a. lives in a section of downtown that is, plainly, cool. Sac has grown up a lot & when i was a.'s age, not a lot was going on in downtown/midtown. that's changed!
but back to the movie. i enjoyed the last third of the flick. the first two-thirds was a summer popcorn movie deluxe. filled with chases & cat & mouse shit. the principals, emily blunt, colman domingo, colin firth [dreamy even with his shaggy beard. but shave it, man!], eve hewson [bono's daughter, really!], & josh o'connor are game for a summer movie adventure. spielberg & co. really can ratchet up some cinematic excitement. but the great director's emotional heaviness comes barreling thru the script. in short, as the beatles said, & this is not a spoiler, all you need is love. but hell, man if someone like emily blunt is looking at you with those eyes & telling you to 'listen' & all you need is love, i'm gonna take heed.
when the reveal, the disclosure, happens brace yourselves for an anti-climax. you've seen this before. still, like i said, spielberg, despite my dislike of his mawkishness, really can deliver the goods. is this movie the filmmaker's grand final statement? i dunno. but even if it is this movie is not a bad coda to a very distinguished oeuvre. i hate steven spielberg's movies & i can't help myself admiring them. even loving some of them. like this movie.
after the film, a., his friend, d., who dropped in to a.'s flat near the end of the movie, & me discussed this movie & other recent sc-fi flicks. a. gave me a copy of ted chiang's short story collection, stories of your life [2002] because we were discussing one of my favorite movies of this century, arrival [2016]. then i gathered up my things into my backpack, put on my black basesabll hat, that makes me look, according to a., some crazy dude, & walked out into a very warm night in downtown/midtown Sac which was very much alive with people in bars, restaurants & even doing that most ordinary thing, walking their dogs.
