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Dir: Oliver Stone (15, 134 mins)
Oliver Stone, once the enfant terrible of cinema with the likes of Platoon, JFK and Natural Born Killers, returns to mainstream relevant film making after several misfires – the sequel to Wall Street, the fluffy W. and banal Savages– in this partially successful re-telling of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is superb as Snowden, down to the pitch perfect voice, centring the more histrionic material around him. Stone’s film uses the making of the excellent Snowden documentary Citizen Four as a framing device, then follows him through his time in the army reserves to working in the CIA cyber division and his gradual horror at the extent of the surveillance the US Government has installed. Concessions are made to the mainstream, Nicolas Cage shows up and barks as an army sergeant, Rhys Ifans does his best baddie acting as Snowden’s CIA mentor and Shailene Woodley has an underwritten girlfriend part. The film despite its flaws, grips. It’s very much on Snowden’s side and sometimes a little too simplistic but Levitt holds it all together with subtle grace.
Opens Dec 2