Decent Political Drama

Rating: 6/10 (24 January 2019)

This dramatization of Edward Snowden's 2013 leak of classified NSA information is far from best movie ever, but far from the worst. The most notable aspect is that Joseph Gordon Levitt does a good job at portraying the controversial whistleblower. Levitt is a great actor, and this is one of his finest performances. He does exactly what any good movie, especially one about a real, living person should; it shows the audience how he got to his place, what his actions were, and why he did them. That way, the audience can relate to him, understand him, and make a more informed judgement on his actions. The rest of the cast is generally well acted, which is good. However, there are detracting elements. First off, this movie has possibly the most pointless sex scene I've ever seen. Pointless sex is one of my least favorite movie tropes. It seems like it was there just to reaffirm that the movie would be rated R. Second, it has really unnecessary cameos by presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton (bearing in mind this movie came out a month before the election), in which they both condemn Snowden's actions. It just felt forced. Therein lies one of the problems with the movie as a whole: unlike much of Oliver Stone's other stuff, it doesn't seem like it's trying as hard as the others to be controversial. Oliver Stone is known for his controversial content, and we've come to expect content that would start conversation, like Snowden did. This isn't exactly it. It feels more like a historical drama that a current political movie. Generally speaking, though, your views of Snowden as a person will reflect your views on this movie. If you think he did the right thing, you may like it. If you think he's a traitor, you probably won't. It's rather simple that way, but there's not much more to it.