Snowden

 

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Snowden is a biographical political thriller directed by Oliver Stone and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It tells the story of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden has the difficult job of trying to cover about ten years’ worth of Edward Snowden’s life within roughly 2 and a half hours. For the most part, I feel that Stone succeeds with this intention. The ending does drag on a little bit long. I feel like ten minutes could’ve been cut from the end of the movie, and that would have been a huge improvement. Snowden works for me as a biopic because it gives me an understanding as to why he did what he did. The film has a bevy of incredible actors in supporting roles, and they all bring their A-game. This includes Tom Wilkinson, Zachary Quinto, Nicolas Cage, and Timothy Olyphant. The standout to me is Shailene Woodley as Snowden’s girlfriend, Lindsay Mills. Woodley and Gordon-Levitt have a very believable back-and-forth, as well as a believable relationship. Oliver Stone does some things with the camera work that I thought were pretty damn slick. There are moments where he’ll show Snowden and his girlfriend talking, but the camera will be positioned just outside of the window, almost giving a feeling like maybe they are being watched. This movie has its flaws, for sure. Overall, it was a decent biopic that did a lot of things right, despite the stumbles it takes here and there.

7 / 10