Review of Snowden (2016) by Richard Y — 08 Oct 2016

"Snowden" is a political thriller based on the life of Edward Snowden and is directed by Oliver Stone. As you know, Oliver Stone is huge on making political films so I wasn't surprised he directed this one. Unfortunately, this doesn't live up to his best work but it's still such a well-directed film that I really did enjoy.

This movie tells the story of Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is the hacker and computer engineer who works for the CIA. Things happen and the travels all over with his girlfriend Lindsay (Shailene Woodley) on different assignments. He then learns of a secret project that gives the government the ability to snoop around everyone's emails, social networks, and computers. He then feels it's important to leak the information to the public by using the journaling magazine The Guardian. The movie goes back and forth between Snowden's time with journalists and his life story.

So I did like this movie and of course but there were its problems. I will get to those a little later. First, let me say that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a great choice for this. His voice and mannerisms do very well at mirroring Edward Snowden. The rest of the cast was also very good and we got a lot of talent at play here: There's Zachary Quinto, Rhys Ifans, Shailene Woodley, Nicolas Cage, Tom Wilkinson and a lot more. They were all good no complaints there. The story was interesting enough to keep me from getting bored and it did a good job exploring the IT side of it. It used the actual code and when their things that needed to be explained it was told in a visual piece using a CGI neural network. It was insightful. I also appreciated the fact that it captured Snowden's personal life with his girlfriend and we get to see the many challenges they encountered and it was enough for me to really feel for these characters. The sacrifice of money and freedom just to keep the people informed was something to think about. I also did enjoy the intense directing of it and it did give the audience the shock of being spied on and the paranoia that it evokes.

Now to the stuff I didn't enjoy as much. Now the film never felt boring but it brought on the sense that something big was gonna happen but it never does. It never has that emotional punch. It was the same problem I had with "Spotlight" and maybe that just how biographical films are. I was just hoping for something a little more ambitious. I also wish the film gave more of a look into the government side of the story. It touches on it but at times feels a little biased.

Despite its shortcomings, this is still a very interesting piece of work and it has great performances and a solid story. It is probably the best adaption we will get of Edward Snowden that allows audiences to understand the story better.