Steven Spielberg has revealed his genius by disguising a popcorn flick as an award winner.

For most of his career, it was easy to pick the veteran director’s lighter fare by the inclusion of sharks, puppets and Harrison Ford. These unabashed blockbusters contrasted starkly with deeper, darker historical pieces of war, politics, terrorism and science fiction.

In Cold War drama Bridge of Spies, he has tweaked his film-making recipe. Part courtroom battle, part espionage caper, Spielberg redeploys the cunning formula he’s been using to captivate audiences for years, except this time it’s peak audience and critic bait. And we fell for it.

Step one, add Tom Hanks. Spielberg has toyed with the Hanks chess piece for years. He used him almost perfectly as stoic hero in Saving Private Ryan (1998), but less so in the comedies Catch Me If You Can (2002) and The Terminal (2004).

In Spies, he gets him just right as lawyer James Donovan, a beacon of morality and all-American wholesomeness who risks his life to help the CIA rescue two Americans imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain.

The film’s weak spots are Spielberg’s own: daggy dad jokes, wide-eyed idealism and schmaltz. The director has long been criticised for these traits, but in Spies he masterfully weaves them into a deeper story. The result is cinema gold.

Fans will recognise his tactics. Everything is foreshadowed and fastidiously bookended. Bridge of Spies has a clear beginning, middle and three-part ending. It opens and closes with chyrons. In the first scene, a painter. At the end, a painting.

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Almost every character’s arc is resolved. When Hanks’ wife says she loves marmalade, you can bet a jar will materialise before the closing credits. And when the CIA boss points out a self-destruct button in the Army’s new U2 spy plane, you know one of the pilots will be shot down.

Spielberg hates surprises as much as he hates unhappy endings. He’s no Hitchcock.

Bridge of Spies even has a catchphrase: Soviet spy Rudolf Abel’s “Would it help?”. (Think “I hate snakes” from Indiana Jones).

Motifs are frequent. Hanks watches in horror as German teens are shot by Berlin Wall snipers, then is reminded by American teens jumping freely over backyard fences. He even battles a cold while in the wintry grip of the Soviets.

Every scene is effortless watching, but even this accessibility is duplicitous. Spielberg can’t help but use all of his favourite camera tricks: mirror shots, sideways tracking shots, wide lenses and more. But none of them feel showy.

Not even the CGI feels out of place. The scene of an American U2 spy plane being shot out of the sky at 70,000 feet by a barrage of computer-generated Russian missiles belongs in a blockbuster action film. Yet it slides in seamlessly amongst the 1950s costume and dialogue.

In 2008, the director hit a low with the awful Indiana Jones reboot Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which swung too far into cheap corniness. He clearly learned from the critical backlash.

Spies is as enjoyable as his recent bests, Lincoln (2012) and Munich (2005), but tops these by fusing the lovability of the Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones series with a meaty story sharply written by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers.

The New Daily watched this piece of award-bait in a packed cinema in an outer Melbourne suburb. Sniffles were heard. At the end, the entire audience clapped.

If Spielberg can repeat this savvy hybrid of serious and sappy, his later work may surpass the former.

He sure hooked us.