Snowden

SNOWDEN

Director : Oliver Stone

Year : 2016

Genre : Drama

Rating : ***

Despite a terrific leading performance from Joseph Gordon Levitt, Oliver Stone's long-awaited biographical drama about the controversial whistleblower Edward Snowden is oddly muted - especially when compared to Laura Poitras' extraordinary 2015 Oscar-winning documentary 'Citizenfour' which also covered the Snowden scandal but in a far more incendiary and urgent fashion. Snowden, who leaked volatile secrets concerning the shocking activities carried about by the NSA is still one of the worlds most divisive figures and while the films script by director Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald (adapted from the books The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time Of The Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena) attempts to get to the heart of the unbelievable story, the movie itself lacks the necessary magnitude or strength needed to really make much of an impact. Joseph Gordon Levitt has continued to be one of the silver screen's brightest stars and once again, he delivers a fine performance here as the bespectacled Snowden, perfectly matching the vocal inflections and dry wit of the man himself to an almost frightening degree. Alongside Levitt are a number of great supporting performances including a standout turn from 'Divergent's Shailene Woodley who is brilliant as Edward's devoted yet disheartened lover and Rhys Ifans who is deliciously devilish as the ruthless CIA trainer Corbin 'O Brian - a surname that should be glaringly familiar to any fans of Orwell's strikingly prophetic novel 1984. Not to mention an all-too-brief appearance from Nicolas Cage who manages to make the most of his small but memorable role as a former US Intelligence official. But beyond it's fine performances, a couple of thrilling standout scenes and some beautiful cinematography courtesy of master D.O.P Anthony Dod Mantle, 'Snowden' doesn't do anything that 'Citizenfour' hadn't already done so much better before it.