Snowden (2016), R, ★★1/2

Oliver Stone is one of the most, if not the most, controversial directors out there, however, he can make conspiracy theories entertaining. But, the problem is that his conspiracy theory movies are uneven in terms of entertainment and storytelling structure. My favorite "conspiracy theory" movie of  his is JFK and because even though controversy will be heavily regarded, we, the moviegoer, will still not know who assassinated John F. Kennedy. Like Jim Garrison, "It's up to you." But, also, he has made Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Savages...movies that have moments of greatness, especially Natural Born Killers but somehow is not navigated as a precise product of interest nor aggression since Natural Born Killers. I thought that Savages brought his aggressive filmmaking style back in some moments of the movie, however, I felt that this movie, while it is entertaining and engaging at times, the movie feels too laid back in its prime storyline and its aesthetic filmmaking structure.

The movie starts in 2013 in Hong Kong as documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) meets with columnist, Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Grinwald), who in turn meet with Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in the lobby. Snowden brings the two in his room to document everything leading up to the event.

In 2004, Snowden was enlisted in the Special Forces as a candidate. He suffers an injury when broke his legs after landing on them in an awkward state during a drill. The doctor warns Snowden that the bones in his legs will turn into powder if he lands on them again, so he is discharged. So, a few years later, he begins training for a position at the Central Intelligence Agency. He started a class under Cobin O'Brian (Rhys Ifans) and as Snowden tries to solve a problem using a sequence, he finishes it quickly.

He befriends both professor Hank Forrester (Nicolas Cage), who has been a good influence and also Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley) who have a romantic relationship. He leaves the CIA because of their actions and later goes to the NSA where he begins to observe work that is disturbing. Snowden realizes that the government is actively spying on people using software, including PRISM. He commences to collect documents containing information regarding their surveillance practices. It is a risky move for Snowden.

Boy, this is a difficult movie to review because I liked a lot of scenes regarding Snowden trying to collect information from the NSA but it's a little too late into the movie and the suspense is there while Snowden goes through the security gates with his Rubik's Cube containing a drive with all the NSA information in there. Obviously, there would be consequences when the news is leaked about the NSA's ordeals. But, the movie does not contribute itself with the coverage that has been presented to us already because the movie is so safe as we observe what is happening in Snowden's eventful life. The movie is not as controversial as it would led to believe as it mostly focuses on his work life. It is like they are presenting us with a resume of his jobs working at different companies and his personal life. He is an intelligent person but there's not much engagement into the material.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a confident and muted performance as he dials the character into a person of intelligence and restraint that you follow him everywhere as he has multiple jobs and is investigating the NSA's purposes of spying on everybody. He and Shailene Woodley have good chemistry while they discuss their point of view from both a conservative and liberal point of view but her character is one-note as an individual character. Zachary Quinto, Melissa Leo and Tom Wilkinson are fine in the roles as the people who are participating in the documentary. Ben Schnetzer has a nice small role and Nicolas Cage, even though he has probably the worst track record of recent years, is great in a brief cameo as the professor.

When I hear about a project from Oliver Stone, I expected a more aggressive and controversial take about what Edward Snowden was going through in his career but the movie plays safe in his personal life. Is he afraid to take a chance now? What he has are solid performances but the story does deliver very little additional information regarding Snowden and the NSA and the CIA that I have never heard of before. The movie is uninspiring and not as creative to drive the narrative forward as I would have liked so the movie does not impact from both a political or an entertaining point of view. It's a basic cable-watch.

If you want to see a better movie about Snowden as a person and about his life and what he had to go through, watch the fascinating documentary, Citizenfour.

**1/2