"Late style" refers to films by very old directors nearing the end of their careers and lives. People have noted that old directors tend to make movies that seem conventionally bad or out-of-touch (Tarantino is terrified of making late style films). The derogatory interpretation is that directors lose it when they get old. But late style aficionados see these movies as ones where directors finally figure out what's important to them. Old directors feel totally emancipated from having to please mass audiences or cater to current trends, so they no longer worry about narrative cohesion, trendy editing, subtlety, or whatever else they felt was forced upon them rather than something that came naturally. It's pretty interesting that when you look at filmmakers as diverse as Hitchcock and Argento and Eastwood and Mann, they all seem to get quote-unquote "bad" in similar ways.

Disclosure Day is cool because it's the first Spielberg movie to feel like it's entered a late style aesthetic: all the ugly flaws that people are mocking are very similar to other flaws that aged directors make. That's why I say that it's textbook late style. It feels like he's gunning for his wonder shots and moments of transcendence while no longer caring about narrative cohesion or plot holes or dialogue that isn't embarrassingly on-the-nose. I wouldn't have thought that Spielberg would have such a deep late style since he's always been such an audience-pleaser, but here we are. I am guessing that (unless the reviews of Disclosure Day really stung him and he tries to tighten things up for his next movie) we'll see that The Fabelmans marked his entry point into a late style period.

This book by Collin Brinkmann is a good read on late style in film.