WINNER
(director: Susanna Fogel; screenwriter: Kerry Howley; cinematographer: Steve Yedlin; editor: Joseph Krings; music: Heather Mcintosh; cast: Emilia Jones (Reality Winner), Annelise Pollmann (Reality at 9), Connie Britton (Billie Winner), Zach Galifianakis (Ron Winner), Kathryn Newton (Brittany Winner), Danny Ramirez (Andre), Gino Anania (AF Recruiter); Runtime: 103; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Scot Budnick, Susanna Fogel, Julie Goldstein, Amanda Phillips, Shiwani Rawhai, Ameet Shukla; Scythia Films/Vertical; 2024-Canada/USA)
“The performance by Emelia Jones is a winner.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A conventional true story political biopic on a firebrand whistleblower that’s directed by Susanna Fogel (“Cat Person”/”The Spy Who Dumped Me”) and written with some zing by the journalist Kerry Howley.
The Texas born whiz, Reality Winner (Emilia Jones), is encouraged by her caring parents (Connie Britton & Zach Galifianakis), especially her home-bound dad, to think for herself. The film chronicles her life from when she was a 9-year-old (played by Annelise Pollmann) until her days as a military contractor translator, as she narrates her story with her own voiceover.
After Reality joins the Air Force, she’s assigned to spy duties. Not satisfied with her AF career, she becomes a military contractor for NSA.
In 2018, she pleads guilty to retaining and leaking national-defense information to the media, that reveals evidence of an American government cover-up regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. It comes in the face of officially sanctioned government lies, that she believes is misleading the American public.
Instead of taking a deep dive into the questionable complex moral political situation it alerts us to, it takes a comical approach to it that only goes so far. The film could have been more insightful if taking on the more prickly hidden troubling issues the government pushes back on, while also continuing its attacks on the government’s censorship and the way it lies about its policies.
For her courageous act, Reality spent five years and three months in federal prison. Our noble heroine states that the citizens have the right to know when the government is lying to them.
The performance by Emelia Jones is a winner.
It played at the Sundance Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 9/26/2024 GRADE: B+
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