Review of Snowden (2016) by Josh C — 15 Sep 2016

If you don't know or care much about political issues or you are on the "Edward Snowden is a traitor" team. You probably won't like this film. As director Oliver Stone often does he opts to take a subjective approach to this movie, and that does hinder it a bit, but the acting is great.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has everything locked down while playing Edward Snowden even things like his voice and his mannerisms are almost clone-like. Shailene Woodley has a great showing as Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills, and the chemistry between the two is undeniable and more often than not the hardest hitting scenes are the ones where she and Gordon-Levitt go back and forth for a lengthy amount of time.

Even Nicolas Cage who hasn't been on a great run as of late turns in a convincing performance. The movie is beautifully shot as it switches from place to place around the world, and the broad shots used inside the buildings really showcase how massive some of the rooms are.

The reason this film falls apart some is because of what it focuses on. We spend so much time learning about Edward Snowden: The person, that we don't get a good look at what many are going to go to the theatre to see this for, and that's Edward Snowden: The Controversial Figure.

Now... we live in a world where unbiased filmmaking isn't a must. But I can't help but feel that this certain film would have been more impactful and more memorable had it shown us both sides.

If we want to know only half of the story we should watch the documentary "Citizenfour" where a lot of the same information comes straight from Snowden himself. The performances are award caliber (although they are not likely to be recognized due to the lackluster film), but this movie is an example of something great becoming something decent because of a few poor decisions.

And I don't normally put all the blame on one person, but Oliver Stone the once great director, really dropped the ball on this one.