Edward Snowden’s is a story that needs to be told, though I was worried about Oliver Stone being the one to tell it, seeing as how nuance isn’t his forte. In his last few films, he’s given us “I know it sounds like Star Wars, love, but you could do it! You could be Captain America!” (about the financial crisis) and “he doesn’t have orgasms, he has WARgasms” (about the Iraq War).
Snowden stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, Shailene Woodley as Snowden’s girlfriend, Melissa Leo as Citizen Four documentarian Laura Poitras, and Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald. I was already worried it would be par for the Oliver Stone course when I noticed the YouTube screengrab was an upside-down American flag. (*pounds forehead on desk*)
Turns out, it’s even worse than that. The 90-second teaser doesn’t show any of those actors, just a slow pan on a flag with dramatic music, culminating in this:
Oliver Stone manages to combine the smugness of Aaron Sorkin with the heavy-handedness of Spike Lee.
We’re long overdue for a debate about the surveillance state in this country, but call me crazy, I’d just as soon it not be moderated by the guy writing Rage Against The Machine lyrics on his Trapper Keeper.