- Director
- Sonia Kennebeck
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 93 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s SXSW Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
This discourse following the 2016 United States presidential election continues to this day as the democratic process remains under threat. Most audiences are more or less aware of the Russia situation and its alleged involvement in that election. What seemed like a likely scenario continues to be debated to this day. Meanwhile, the discourse surrounding leakers and whistleblowers remains contentious. Are they patriots or are they traitors? The most notable whistleblower is undoubtedly Edward Snowden but what about Reality Winner (yes, that’s an actual name)? United States vs. Reality Winner is a documentary that tells the story of Reality Winner, a 25-year-old female NSA contractor and whistleblower who leaked a document implicating Russia in the 2016 United States presidential election. While the film captures the emotion of the case, it doesn’t bring anything new to the table as its limited perspective (Reality Winner is currently in prison) prevents it from approaching the subject matter with real depth.
United States vs. Reality Winner works as a standard documentary, featuring the usual interviews with prominent figures and focusing on Winner’s family as they fight for their daughter’s release. Despite unearthed FBI footage of her interrogation and arrest, the film fails to approach the important questions such as the who, how, and why of what happened. One can’t help but feel for Winner and her willingness to put her country above herself and to a lesser extent, Winner’s family and how they care about their daughter but in the end, there was simply an inability to connect with the film as a whole on a deeper emotional level.
Nevertheless, United States vs. Reality Winner will find an audience but is merely more of the same for better or worse.
still courtesy of Codebreaker Films
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.