3.5/5 stars

The notoriously treacherous hurdles that Hong Kong telecommunications company i-Cable used to put in front of customers looking to unsubscribe from its internet and pay-TV services throughout the 2000s and early 2010s provide the premise of this Kafkaesque comedy-drama – an alternately hilarious and heartbreaking case of raging against the system.

By Susan Granger

With the release of his 35^th movie, it’s obvious that Steven Spielberg is not just a good story-teller, he’s a GREAT story-teller. 

The suspenseful tale he spins this time is “Disclosure Day” about the U.S. government’s attempt to keep the truth about UFOs secret.

Sinister Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) heads WARDEX (Waived Reporting, Development and Extraction), a quasi-Defense Department agency from which cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) has stolen a powerful device of alien origin along with extensive classified information and video files. 

Although his girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) is held hostage by Scanlon’s underlings, Daniel manages to free her and get away, igniting a manhunt.

Supported by WARDEX’s Director of Biological Assets, paternal Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), whistleblower Daniel believes people have a right to know about the coverup, dating back to the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, paranoia and the Nixon Administration. 

Meanwhile in the middle of a TV broadcast, Kansas City, Missouri, meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) suddenly begins making bizarre, guttural clicking sounds which make no sense – except to Daniel, who recognizes the alien code.

To the bewilderment of her boyfriend, Jackson (Wyatt Russell, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s son), Margaret can suddenly speak foreign languages – like Korean and Russian – and manipulate the minds of everyone she encounters. 

What Daniel and Margaret have in common is a terrifying childhood trauma that neither wants to remember. To tell you more would ruin the film’s many white-knuckle surprises and insights about faith in a supreme deity and the philosophical essence of humanity. 

Scripted by David Koepp from Steven Spielberg’s story, it revolves around a nefarious conspiracy, cloaked in sci-fi mystery, tracing back to “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of a Third Kind.” And it’s a timely topic since former President Obama said he believes aliens are real, prompting President Trump to accuse him of revealing “classified information.”

Sure – there are some gaping plot loopholes – but cinematographer Janusz Kaminski dazzles with a high-speed train chase. Buoyed by John Williams’ throwback score – on the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Disclosure Day” is an exciting 9, playing in theaters now.

Catch up on Susan’s recent reviews:

Susan Granger

^{_{Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in Journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has appeared on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie critic for many years. Read all her reviews at susangranger.com.}}

Unidentified, 2025.

Written and Directed by Haifaa al-Mansour.
Starring Mila Al-Zahrani, Aziz Gharbawi, Shafi Al Harthy, Adwa Alasiri, and Othoub Sharar.

SYNOPSIS:

A grieving mother, fueled by her passion for true crime, seeks answers when a teenage girl is found dead in the desert and the police investigation stalls.

From writer/director Haifaa al-Mansour, Unidentified is one of those thrillers that one can’t help wanting to jump forward to the end when talking about it, as it contains a sinking major twist that isn’t just preposterous, but rather not even the same grounded tone exploring real-world social issues in Riyadh, exchanging that for trashy airport novel vibes. When the reveal is unfolding, it feels as if it is from another movie entirely. That’s also not to say the filmmaker isn’t still aiming for something regarding patriarchal commentary, but all that can be seen is an absurd turn of events that don’t necessarily need to be here; if anything, this would be passable if it had ended about ten minutes earlier.

In a unique angle for murder mysteries, the story is centered on aspiring police detective Noelle (Mila Al-Zahrani, effectively playing a woman haunted by her past and the misogynistic culture around her that doesn’t allow women the same chances at freedom or thriving), compulsively watching an influencer breaking down various American murder mysteries and culprit tactics while working in a precinct scanning files with the many men around her under the assumption that she isn’t equipped to handle anything more beyond that. Upon the discovery of a dead teenage girl, the slight wrinkle comes in that the detectives aren’t only looking for a suspect, but also the identity of the woman. If she isn’t claimed by loved ones in roughly two weeks, the body will be buried in an unmarked grave. As for Noelle, she becomes overwhelmed by the feeling that this could have been her.

After a sluggish start, which sees Noelle brought into the fold more to get her thoughts on the crime scene, she begins going against the orders of her superiors to further dig around for information, eventually coming into contact with two girls at a high school who knew the dead girl. Soon after that, she starts receiving cryptic text messages from unknown senders related to whatever happened (a prologue does keep viewers marginally ahead, informing us that the body was driven out into the desert and dropped there dead). Where Unidentified truly starts to get interesting and wildly different from American murder mysteries is that the deceased is identified relatively halfway through, with the story shifting more into a family that doesn’t want to claim the girl as theirs, for reasons related to sexism and what the girl was doing. 

Perhaps a misstep, the film is also concerned with shading in some of Noelle’s interior life, with a disapproving brother who thinks she should get married again (she was already in an arranged marriage for five years and divorced, while barely looking 25) instead of striving to become a detective. There is also some business about the ex-husband being abusive, and a stillborn daughter, mostly serving as a distraction that doesn’t add much. That subplot is here for a reason, but unfortunately, nearly all the wrong ones. No favors are done by the awful color grading in these flashbacks and performances that feel straight from a soap opera.

Engaging and refreshing when Noelle is trying to get through to this family that the girl is still part of them, there are a couple of sobering, sad conversations. Whenever shifting back into trying to pin the killer, there is always that sneaking suspicion that the answer will be ridiculous. For a film that already takes some time to get away from dry generic interrogations and build momentum, that identifiable aspect of the ruins Unidentified.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist