By Sandra Hall

June 29, 2023 — 5.30am

, register or subscribe to save articles for later.

Save articles for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.

Reality

(M) 82 minutes

Reality is a bizarre blend of the gripping and the banal – a film in which politeness is used as a weapon and guile is disguised as embarrassment.

Its title has two meanings. It refers to its main character, Reality Winner, a National Security Agency whistleblower whose strange first name was chosen by her father for reasons that she doesn’t seem to understand. And “reality” also describes writer-director Tina Satter’s pared-down approach to the true story of Winner’s arrest, which took place in Augusta, Georgia, on a sleepy Saturday afternoon in 2017.

She was charged with leaking a classified document to the media, and Satter scrupulously resists any urge to dramatise the case. The film’s dialogue is drawn entirely from FBI transcripts of Winner’s interrogation by two agents whose demeanour is so low-key that you could be excused for imagining that they have appointed themselves her honorary uncles.

There is a lot of solicitous talk as to whether she’s hungry or thirsty, and much time is spent discussing the care of her cat and dog if they end up having to take her into FBI headquarters.

Reality (Sydney Sweeney) has been out buying groceries when the agents stop by, and after bumbling about a bit, they come inside with her and settle on a quiet place to talk.

The older...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNtaC5jb20uYXUvY3Vs...