"Disclosure Day" - I want to believe.

The idea has been around for decades that the government has been hiding proof of the existence of aliens. Specifically, that aliens have visited Earth. Just recently, the Pentagon released a bunch of declassified files about UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon) investigations that proved exactly as much as every other information release regarding UAP (renamed from UFO some years ago). In a word - nothing. Personally, I do not believe that aliens have ever visited Earth. Definitely not since human beings invented civilization. I'm definitely open to the possibility, on the condition that any evidence presented is clear and irrefutable. But the biggest reason I don't think aliens have been here is because it requires me believing that they crash their spacecraft. Crash them a lot.

Disclosure Day is what all the alien conspiracy theorists dream of. It's the day we find out that aliens have been zipping around the skies of Earth for years. It's the day we find out the government knew about the aliens, even captured some of the aliens. It's the day we see the "real" video of UFO/UAP encounters; clear and detailed images of extraterrestrial craft and biologics rather than grainy videos of glowing orbs or flocks of seagulls. It's the day we confirm that despite wildly advanced technology allowing aliens to travel vast distances and defy the laws of physics, they crash more often than a drunk, fully self-driving Tesla.

Daniel Kellner (Josh O'Connor) is a cybersecurity specialist working for the Wardex corporation. Daniel has stolen copies of all of their files related to the existence of aliens, as well as a piece of alien technology. Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) is the head of Wardex and wants his stuff back. Daniel is working in league with another Wardex employee named Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo) to release all of the information to the public. After a botched attempt to trade Daniel his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) for the alien stuff, Daniel and Jane go on the run from Noah while Hugo finishes setting something up in preparation for the information release. It's a story and plot we've seen in countless other films, but director Steven Spielberg (also wrote the story) and writer David Koepp aren't content with just that.

Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) is a meteorologist in Kansas City who wants more out of life than TV weather girl. When a cardinal flies into her apartment and looks at her, she gets what she asked for. She starts reading minds and speaking different languages, including an alien language while on air doing the local forecast. When that video goes viral, Noah and friends see it and immediately set out to capture Margaret. So too does Hugo, once he's clued into the video. Once all of these people are in motion, we find ourselves engrossed in a classic Spielberg film.

You know what I’m talking about. Clear goals and motivations for the characters. Steady pacing to build drama all the way to the climax. A well-defined plot that’s easy to follow. Actors delivering good performances, if not great performances. On that note, shout out to Hewson for some excellent work in the second act of the film. She’s asked to shapeshift (I won’t say how) and she does a remarkably good job going back and forth.

And of course, the special effects and musical score are top shelf. Close your eyes for a second and you immediately recognize music that can only come from John Williams. Then, open your eyes and soak in the beautiful visuals and long takes, including a four-minute take where Blunt vocalizes the alien language...with no SFX or AI assistance. Things like this are why we always show up for Spielberg films.

A friend that came with me was really interested in seeing the film. What I didn’t know prior to inviting him was that he hadn’t been to a movie theater in over a decade. When we sat down, he was surprised to find reclining chairs and plenty of legroom. The look on his face was one of joy. When the credits rolled, I asked him if this movie was worth returning to theaters for and that look was still there as he emphatically said it was well worth it. I may not believe aliens have visited Earth, but I believe in the power of Spielberg.

Rating: Worth every penny, conspiracy theory or not.

“1917” - Can you handle the truth?

If you are into war movies, there are two major ones from which to get your fix. By now, you probably already saw Midway and, depending on what city you live in, might have seen 1917 as well. If not, you are waiting with bated breath for January 10 to get here, which is when 1917 rolls out everywhere. And, I sympathize with you because Midway was not what one might describe as good. Rather, it is what one might describe as “definitely a movie,” or even “the opposite of how to make an interesting movie.”

War movies tend to be really good when the plot is narrowly focused on a specific event. For those of you who have seen neither Midway nor 1917 (or their associated previews), one is focused on a specific event and the other covers several events that take place over a significant amount of time. Based on title, you would assume Midway is the specific one. There was only one Battle of Midway during WWII, so the movie has to focus on that, right? Conversely, 1917 is an entire year of the Great War, in which at least three major battles were fought. Surely, the film will give us a look at the horrors of that year, including the Battle of Cambrai, which was the first time battle tanks were used on a massive scale. If you haven’t already guessed, the opposite is true of both films.

(Side note: Midway should have followed in Dunkirk’s footsteps, but chose to follow in Pearl Harbor’s footsteps. Even worse, Midway didn’t even have great special effects. But enough about Midway; that is not why you are here.)

If you have never seen pictures or heard first or second-hand descriptions of WWI battlefields, think of your worst nightmare, feed that nightmare into a meat grinder, then double it. What little we were taught about WWI in school probably included trench warfare, covered the deployment of new weapons like airplanes, machine guns, and tanks, and briefly described the space between opposing trenches (no-man’s land) as a mess of barbed wire and land mines and thousands of flying bullets and artillery shells. Maybe, just maybe, you had a teacher who also mentioned the bodies that littered no-man’s land, but probably only in the context of a lot of men dying whenever one side would order its men to charge the other side’s line. They never got into the facts that retrieving bodies from no-man’s land was next to impossible, the massive use of modern artillery and chemical weapons left a maelstrom of craters filled with people/poison soup, or that many of those suicidal charges involved horse-mounted cavalry. The point is do not eat any food while watching 1917.

That is not wood floating in the river next to him.

1917 corrects the error of American history classes by showing us that nightmare. British Lance Corporals Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) are ordered to make their way nine miles forward to warn a 1600-man brigade that is unwittingly marching into a trap. Like them, our immediate question is how they make it a dozen steps before being mowed down. Don’t worry, their commanding officer (Colin Firth) assures them. Aerial surveillance shows the Germans have retreated to lines further back and that the duo can cross no-man’s land safely. The surveillance is also how they know about the trap. Pshaw (or bollocks), we say in unison with Lieutenant Leslie (Andrew Scott). Leslie tells them where they can cross the barbed wire (directions which include “cross through at the horse”), while simultaneously assuring them they will die. Oh, and don’t fall into the craters because we know they are half-filled with water and nobody knows how deep they are. This is half of the recipe for the movie-long tension that begins the moment the men peek their heads above the rim of their trench.

You want to go out there on purpose?

The other half, as my Ruthless colleague John has discussed, is the lack of film cuts throughout the film. Director Sam Mendes wanted to build the tension and realism by putting the audience into the trenches, no-man’s land, and gutted towns with Schofield and Blake and removing cuts is a great way of doing that. You probably have never consciously noticed that a cut allows you take let your breath out or blink your eyes, artificially releasing a bit of tension and momentarily pulling you out from whatever film you are watching. About five minutes into 1917, I realized there had not been a cut yet (for reference, the average length of a shot is 2.5 seconds) and that my eyes were really, really dry. I did my best to look for them, but it was really difficult once the meat grinder was on full display. There are plenty of clever ways to hide cuts, but they just weren’t there. What was there were Black and Schofield crawling through mud, barbed wire, and craters filled with rancid liquids, rats, and body parts and rotting faces glaring at them for having the audacity to not also be dead. Oh, and the horses the dead rode in on.

Cut me a break already.

Since Mendes did everything possible to make the film appear as one long cut, the tension almost never breaks. Like the two corporals, we are expecting bullets to fly at any moment. For one of them to step on a land mine. For an artillery shell to explode. For Germans to be around every corner. Even worse, and just like in life, nothing happens when you expect it to, instead happening out of sync. If I chewed my fingernails when I got nervous, I would have nothing left below the elbows.

Like Saving Private Ryan and other great war films, 1917 works because the war is the setting instead of the plot. We can experience the war by observing it with Blake and Schofield. For this film and for our benefit, they channel the experience of the entire Allied army.  As they navigate the obstacles of the war to accomplish their mission, not only do we see all of those things we learned about in school (tanks, trenches, biplanes, artillery, death), but we see all of the things no one told us about. The simple plot of two men risking their lives in a suicide mission for the greater good is a far better story than trying to cram half of WWII into a two-hour Midway, I mean movie.

Rating: Do not ask for any money back and don’t forget to unclench.