Snowden (2016)

Snowden: Directed by Oliver Stone. With Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jaymes Butler. The NSA’s illegal surveillance techniques are leaked to the public by one of the agency’s employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press.

“I went to watch Snowden with someone who was extremely well informed about the subject while I sadly wasnu0026#39;t and while we had extremely different perspectives going into it, I believe it is safe to say both thought the movie was pretty darn awesome. From the former point of view, it appears some important things were left out, while I kept getting stuck on stuff like how does a guy who did not even finish high school and obviously really wants to make it in Special Forces turn out to be such a genius, only being self-taught.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe fact is the story enthralled me. Even if some things felt cheesy, especially the abuse of light surrounding the main character in key moments, the fact is due to such a strong issue and Joseph Gordon-Levittu0026#39;s stellar performance (queue choir of angels – yes, I am biased towards this guy, sue me), this was indeed a memorable experience.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI mean, that guy obviously did such a brilliant character study. I cannot get past how he placed his voice. The facial expressions and ticks, the way he held himself, a lovely mixture of a fragile and strong young man with principles literally held me at the edge of my seat sometimes – I had to keep reminding myself to sit back.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome things did throw me off besides what I mentioned above, such as the way he got the information out (the entire process just seemed oversimplified) – and really every single time he expressed his obviously dangerous points of view.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, I had a terrific time watching this and I highly recommend it. Makes me want to watch the documentary, to find out what really happened and what is just in the movie.”