Citizenfour (2014)

Redundant and unnecessary.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Edward Snowdon's interview at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong was very bold, and I can imagine how would have felt whenever someone knocked on the door announcing room service. I know it's a trope in many spy/cop/detective shows, and thankfully Snowdon managed to make a run for it, or else the Oliver Stone movie later on would have taken a different direction.

If you are expecting a narrated boring documentary this isn't that. This movie plays out like a Hollywood spy thriller. You have to continuously remind yourself that these aren't actors, this isn't a dramatization, this is real, it's not a reenactment, it is not "based on real events" or "inspired by a true story" it is filmed history, it is actual footage of the events as they unfolded. If you have seen the movie "Snowden" you already saw what a "dramatization" of the story would be like... and when you saw it you probably thought "oh please, this is all made up...." but remarkably this story isn't that different. The facts in this story are scary real. Is Edward Snowden a patriot? is he a Traitor? Maybe a bit of both is the answer to that question. It really depends on who is writing the history books after all. Both Citizenfour and Snowden certainly paint him as a hero and that may well be the truth but watch them both, do some research outside of the movies and decide for yourself. Citizenfour is the better of the two movies but both are well worth watching and both are very captivating and you will find it difficult to take your eyes off the screen.I don't write reviews often, and I pretty much never give 10 out of 10... but this movie is as good as it gets in my opinion.

...and given the constraints they were operating under, maybe that much could not be revealed.The first 20 minutes or so are of Ed, who isn't even known to the world yet, talking to a couple of journalists he has invited to his Hong Kong hotel room where he is hiding out from a system that doesn't even know he is missing yet. In a way, I'm surprised they came because about ten minutes into the conversation one says "What is your name again?", so maybe they had no idea what they were getting into, maybe at first they thought they were dealing with a crackpot, etc.Some people have said it is boring, and I don't know why. Although you never get any real specifics about what Snowden did have on the NSA, you get an idea from him just sitting on his bed in his tee shirt talking to these journalists that he has seen stuff that has made him hyper vigilant. He puts a red hood over him when he types in a password to his laptop in case there is visual surveillance, he unplugs the phone because it contains ICs that can be used as a "hot mike", and he is highly suspicious when the fire alarms go off just as he is talking about what he knows. His fear is real.I think this preliminary footage may have just been a way to show a human side of Ed. I mean, a lot of the documentary (on top of revealing more details of the secrets he leaked) is meant to show to the world that he's not crazy bob in his trailer in Nevada. He's a young, very smart, very articulate, very normal individual. Showing him simply struggling with his hair (something I'm sure most of us have dealt with at one point or another) demonstrates to us that he's not a mysterious conspiracy theorist to be dismissed; he's just like you and I. And the human quality makes us trust what he has to say a lot more. It's easy to ignore someone you think is crazy. It's not so easy to ignore someone in whom you see a little bit of yourself.As for Glenn Greenwald of UK's The Guardian, he's shown as an articulate spokesman and advocate. He goes to Brazil and explains to them that all of this surveillance is just not about fighting terrorism. He brings his case home to them by saying if they were bidding on a contract in the US, then all of the details of their negotiations and plans to get that contract are now in the hands of the US government, and could be put in the hands of any American competitor.The negatives? There is a part at the end that is not clearly explained. It is a conversation between Greenwald and Snowden about there being another contact in Germany that is ready to talk about what he knows about NSA surveillance. Some extremely unclear pictures are drawn and Snowden looks somewhat horrified saying stuff like "This is very risky. Does this guy know what he is doing, etc." He is really scared for the new contact, but it is never clear what is going on. The only other negative I have is, did the print explaining the transition between scenes HAVE to be so small? I had to pause the DVD and get up close to the screen to see what was being said.I'd highly recommend this documentary just based on the fact that it pulls together some of the information that has now been scrubbed from public sources, shows Snowden as a human being, shows the bravery of both himself and Glenn Greenwald, and brings up that pesky question - is giving up such privacy - which as the documentary mentions is pretty much a synonym for liberty - worth it for increased security. Benjamin Franklin seemed to think that was not so. Watch it with an open mind.

Winner of this year's Best Documentary feature at the Academy Awards, Citizenfour is an insightful and rare glimpse into the politically charged revelations of former NSA sub-contractor Edward Snowden that has seen him become a Julian Assange like figure of the modern world and one of the wanted men on America's most hated list.Before Oliver Stone's high profile Joseph Gordon Levitt retelling of the Snowden story hits our screens sometime next year, Citizenfour offers us the best chance to get to know Snowden the "person" not the news headline and also get background as to why this clearly smart and sophisticated young man choose to unleash the National Security Agency's real dealings to the world through his touch base with the Guardian newspaper and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.Citizenfour (Snowden's code name in email contact with reporters and filmmakers) is not a documentary worth seeing for any other reason other than the fact it's an incredibly intimate and unflattering look at the week in the life of Snowden when the news was being prepped for the world at just what was going on behind closed doors. Snowden allowed filmmaker Poitras access to his hotel room as he carried out meetings with the Guardian's reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill and while watching we feel like a fly on the wall as this world changing news is gathered and the dots are joined together. In these close-nit meetings Snowden comes across as a likable and thoughtful persona that cares not for his own goals, rather the lives of his fellow citizens both at home and abroad.Snowden's recollections of what lay at the fingertips of the NSA are both revealing and frightening and he displays a clear understanding of just why this information can't be left behind closed doors. After watching Snowden talk, you'll be hard pressed to look at your phone or computer in the same way as before.With Steven Soderbergh's presence here as a producer, Citizenfour has a polished feel but really as a film making piece there's nothing to ride home about here and the true star of the show is Snowden himself. Perhaps a slightly strange choice for a Best Documentary win at the Oscars considering the film mainly consists of a camera planted solely around Snowden, Citzenfour is none the less an intriguing and honest look into one of the modern eras most explosive information leaks.3 ½ tension riddled fire alarm tests out of 5