Review of Citizenfour (2014) by Dan K — 16 Mar 2015
The weight of the secrets hits you like a swinging bag of bricks, then you realize you already know just about all that's in here. What we do get a little more of is the personalities behind Snowden and Greenwald, who turn out to be less equipped to handle state secrets than we might hope (early in the film Snowden lectures him not to leave the SD card holding secrets in his laptop, 'pro tip 1') , then the next day Snowden realizes he neglected to disconnect the phones capable of listening in on their meeting.
Does it mean they're in the wrong? Not necessarily, but it does beg the question to wonder just how much Snowden did take, and where it all may have ended up. Probably the most interesting bit of the film is that Snowden tracked down the filmmaker because she herself was a target of the NSA's watch list for making a film about the Iraq war.
In the end however, citizenfour can't really conjure a good way to go about this business when held up to the indisputable fact that... we (not me, I was still in grade school) gave the whole world's rights away with the patriot act.
This review of Citizenfour (2014) was written by Dan K on 16 Mar 2015.
Citizenfour has generally received very positive reviews.
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