The real-life story of Reality Winner’s arrest unfolds as such a sharp piece of on-the-nose political theater that it almost seems to have been dramatized. On June 3, 2017, the FBI showed up at the former Air Force member and NSA translator’s house to question her about a leaked document that they’d traced back to her. Over the course of the interrogation — during which the agents did not read the ex-intelligence specialist her Miranda rights and during which she refrained from requesting a lawyer — Winner’s composure gradually deteriorated. She was arrested under suspicion of releasing an intelligence report that detailed Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections before being sentenced to five years and three months in prison, the longest ever for the crime.
Tina Satter’s subsequent dramatization of the arrest — first in 2019’s play “Is This a Room” and now in the HBO film “Reality” — pulls directly from the transcript of the actual conversation. Starring Sydney Sweeney as Winner and Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis as FBI agents Garrick and Taylor, “Reality” strings the film’s tension through details that would seem mundane in real life. Inadvertent stuttering, repetitive questions and even the act of putting groceries in the refrigerator build around the film’s central conflict.
Davis, whose previous credits include “The Day Shall Come” and Broadway productions “Ain’t No’ Mo’” and “Good Night, Oscar,” chatted with Variety about the filming process, his...
Dangote Group has dismissed as false and malicious a publication alleging that its President, Aliko Dangote, distanced himself from Tony Elumelu, describing the report as entirely baseless. In a s...