Lazy Film Critic Movie Reviews
Snowden
So last night I saw Oliver Stones latest biopic, Snowden, based on the true story of Edward Snowden. Incase you don't know who that is, he's the whistleblower who leaked information telling the world about an international unwarranted NSA surveillance program, in which the NSA was monitoring cell phones and internet activity of pretty much anyone. There's a lot more going on, but that's the gist of it. Now going into this film I had a bit of a bias, I'm on the side of the debate that what the NSA was doing was morally wrong, and that Snowden is easily one of the most important heroes of this decade.
When I first heard of this movie, way back in around 2014 when it started production, I was immediately interested. At the time, Joseph Gordon-Levitt hadn't really done anything since Don Jon, and I was interested to see what it was he was going to star in next. So the fact that he starred in this was one of the factors of me seeing it and I gotta say he did a pretty good job. Although his voice takes a little getting used to, he managed to play the character in a way that was quiet but had a lot of subtle complexities and micro expressions, each of which JGL managed to play pretty well. Also pretty great was the long supporting cast, which includes Shailene Woodley, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage, Scott Eastwood, Keith Stanfield, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, and Melissa Leo. Each of them did a pretty good job in their respective parts and it was nice to see Oliver Stone once again handling a film with an all-star cast like this one.
Oliver Stone is no doubt a talented director, he's had a long career spanning back to the mid-80s, however it's been a long time since he's made anything really of note. And while Snowden isn't his best, it's certainly refreshing to see that after all this time he still knows how to make a compelling political drama. Not only is the writing great in this movie, but the cinematography is just as fantastic. This movie uses a lot of deceptive angles and framing to give the illusion the characters depicted in certain scenes are being watched, which was a subtle but genius was to carry the films overall point.
If there's any one issue I had with this movie, it's the pacing. This movie isn't a manhunt movie, and the majority of it isn't even about the leak or the surveillance. Most of this movie is about Snowden, as a person, and learning about this character slowly and over time. And while I can't say I was ever bored with this movie, it'd be a flat-out lie to say it wasn't slower than the usual film. It's not an espionage thriller, it's not a political thriller, and not every character is interesting enough to carry each scene. It wasn't a huge deal for me, but I could see it being film-breaking fro some.
One thing I absolutely need to address is the kind of side this movie takes. I'm very biased on this movie, as personally I think Snowden is a hero (I'd even say he should be pardoned for his actions), and for the most part, this movie seems to agree. Now for me, that was kind of awesome. It went at the topic from an angle that I agreed with, so obviously I really enjoyed that. However, that being said, this movie still has a political bias. One of my favorite movies of the year, Eye in the Sky, was amazing for the mature and fairly neutral way it handled a touchy and divisive topic, it allowed for discussion and made arguments for both sides of the drone debate. This movie doesn't do that, it made the film more of a one-sided thing, and while it was the side I agreed with, the film would have benefited from promoting more discussion by showing other sides of the argument.
Final Rating
All in all, while I wish Snowden had been more of a discussion promoting film than one-sided film, I still had a pretty good time with it. If you want some more insight into who Snowden was as a person, I'd say go check it out, it's worth the time spent seeing it. A good accompanying piece would be Laura Poitras documentary Citizenfour. It's also pretty educational on the subject and I highly recommend watching that as well as this film.
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