Oliver Stone, our national cinematic conspiracy theorist and all-around anti-establishment auteur, digs deep into the latest and most illuminating political scandal of our times with this taut and entertainingly paranoia-inducing biopic-cum-technophobic history lesson about the NSA’s Public Enemy and Global Fugitive No. 1.
At first, Joseph Gordon-Levitt seemed an odd choice to play Edward Snowden, the introverted, nerdy government contractor who pulled the curtain away from U.S. government’s all-seeing, all-surveilling extra-legal wizardry back in 2013. It seems like ages, does it not, since the young CIA employee and Booz Allen Hamilton contractor’s alarming revelations of illicit homeland spycraft were revealed by UK newspaperThe GuardianandThe Washington Post(and soon after by Der SpiegelandThe New York Times). Gordon-Levitt, however, nails the part, physically hunching down into himself and getting Snowden’s halting, thoughtful speech patterns just right, while Stone, with screenwriter Kieran Fitzgerald, creates a whirlwind ride nearly but not quite worthy ofThe Parallax View-era conspiracy thrillers.
Because Snowden’s revelations and his subsequent flight from the clutches of American military justice in a secretive FISA court to Russia, of all places, has already been documented exhaustively, Stone structures his film via revealing flashbacks. It begins with a furtive, clandestine meeting between Snowden, filmmaker-activist Laura Poitras (who helmed 2014’s Oscar-winning Snowden documentaryCitizenfour; here she’s played by the excellent Melissa Leo).
The film then jumps back and forth through Snowden’s life, focusing on his initial induction into the CIA via mentor Corbin O’Brian and his budding disquiet as he discovers the sheer magnitude of his employer’s overreach over its own citizens. That, in turn, impacts his romance with his photographer girlfriend Lindsay (Shailene Woodley), which leads to his moral and ethical decision to surreptitiously – in a wonderfully choreographed, edge-of-your-seat sequence – take the downloads and run.
If you’ve been following the Snowden story, chances are you already know much of the plot. It’s in the way Stone and his rock-solid cast spin it, thrillingly, that makes Snowdenthe top-notch nail-biter it is. Love him or hate him, Oliver Stone or Edward Snowden, both of these American icons make for dramatically breathtaking cinema.
Snowden (3) Directed by Oliver Stone • Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo • Rated R • 134 min. • At Century Cinemas Del Monte, Maya Cinemas, Northridge Cinemas, Lighthouse Cinemas