Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Citizenfour

Laura Poitras’ acclaimed documentary Citizenfour, which is comprised of a series of interviews with highly paranoid Edward Snowden in his Hong Kong hotel room shortly after his dissemination of classified NSA material in 2013, is really just a structureless exercise that doesn’t really tell you anything you didn’t know already about the subject with the ‘you are there’ effect quickly wearing away.  Matters are made worse by the director opting to tell the story in first person and attempting to elevate herself to hero status by constantly reminding the viewer of her involvement of the subject matter since its inception and referencing her other noble factuals.
** 1/2 out of ****