Earlier today, a new full length Trailer dropped for Snowden, the Oliver Stone helmed biopic of a certain notorious whistleblower. This conspiracy/political thriller seems right up Stone’s wheelhouse, with an A-list cast on to help, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the title role. We’ve only seen little teases for the film so far, along with a delayed release from last year (when the movie apparently wasn’t finished yet) to this year, so it’s pretty much been an X factor. Now, a bit more is known, so some musings can be done. Of course, you can see the Trailer at the end of the piece, but for now, let’s dive in and see what we can potentially make of this one…
For those unaware, this is a biopic of Edward Snowden (played here by Gordon-Levitt), who we see go from dedicated work in the military to the work with the CIA that will make him famous/infamous, while carrying on a loving relationship with Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley). As he becomes more and more disillusioned with the government’s surveillance practices, he ends up deciding to speak out and show the American people what’s going on. Once he’s outed as a whistleblower though, the response is not exactly what he expected. Stone obviously directs and co-writes here with Kieran Fitzgerald (based on books by Luke Harding and Anatoly Kucherena), and he’s got a hell of a cast in place. In addition to Gordon-Levitt and Woodley in what seems to be the juiciest roles, there’s Nicolas Cage, Scott Eastwood, Rhys Ifans, Melissa Leo, Timothy Olyphant, Zachary Quinto, Joely Richardson, Keith Stanfield, and Tom Wilkinson, among others. Cinematography here is done by Academy Award winner Anthony Dod Mantle.
Just going by the Trailer, it looks like this should be closer to Stone’s highly regarded works than his also rans. Gordon-Levitt seems very good too, though his accent could throw some off. I didn’t mind it, however, as he actually sounds like Snowden. Woodley is in a role that voters often take a shine too, so if she has the material, I’d expect her to receive some praise. Mostly, it just looks like a great companion piece to CitizenFour, offering up a fictional version of that award winning documentary. Provided Stone can keep some of his conspiracy theory tendencies in check, there appears to be a lot to like here.
Speculating on awards, there’s a chance that this could be [...]
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