Oliver Stone has written and directed a movie about Edward Snowden, presumably because a Benedict Arnold biopic would’ve required too much research.
Here is the traitor. I mean trailer. Well, both, really:
This is Stone’s first feature film since 2012’s Savages, which was… not so good. (Read the Don Winslow novel instead. It’s great.) I’m glad Stone is now getting back to what he does best: Reminding us that America is always the bad guy.
I honestly don’t know what Snowden’s voice sounds like, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt is always well-prepared, so I assume his impersonation is painstakingly accurate. Either that or he’s auditioning to be the next voice of Fozzy Bear.
Hey, what’s with preceding the trailer with a mini-trailer for the trailer? The new Jason Bourne trailer does the same thing. It’s like they don’t think they can hold our attention for the next two and a half minutes. Which, in this case, is true. At least Bourne punches a guy. This is just a creepy nerd with a Rubik’s Cube.
It’s always good to see Nic Cage. He’s one of the few actors in Hollywood for which the line “Find the terrorist in the Internet haystack” is a step up.
Looks like there’ll be a lot of flashy CGI shots to approximate the way Oliver Stone thinks the Internet works. He probably crammed for this by marathoning CSI: Cyber.
Snowden won’t be at the premiere, because he’s a coward and he’d be jailed for his crimes if he ever set foot on American soil. But he’s always good for a fey, passive-aggressive tweet:
For two minutes and thirty nine seconds, everybody at NSA just stopped working. https://t.co/OLjCV6wkGp
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 27, 2016
What an American hero.
Well, good luck to all involved. Movies about self-aggrandizing fugitives from justice in the Internet age don’t tend to perform too well — hello, Fifth Estate — but maybe this one will break the curse. And if not, down with capitalism anyway.