Movie Review: Citizenfour

Edward Snowden finds himself caught in an espionage thriller of his own making.

Early in Citizenfour, Laura Poitras’ alarming documentary about the U.S. government’s illegal wiretapping and the architect of their reveal, whistle-blower Edward Snowden expresses concern over the apathetic young internet users who jokingly expect to be surveilled online; as if, to be stalked on the internet by Big Brother is part of our user agreement.

Over the picture’s 114 minutes, the worrying reality behind those jokes becomes all too real.

When Snowden, a former administrator for the CIA and NSA contractor, decided in 2013 to make public his nation’s secret, unlawful activities, he turned to journalist Glenn Greenwald and documentarian Poitras.

After finally earning his trust through encrypted communications, Poitras and Greenwald ventured to Hong Kong to meet the mysterious contact, acting as receptacle for his astounding mind dump of incriminating information.

When The Guardian goes live with Greenwald’s articles, shockwaves reverberate across the nations, even drawing President Obama - forced to answer for spying overseas - into the melee.

Within days, as if to prove Snowden’s claims of the far, horrifying reach of the NSA, mysterious calls and visitors start coming to their Hong Kong hotel rooms. The untimely deployment of a (maybe totally innocent) fire alarm in the building sends Snowden’s suspicions into overdrive.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Snowden covers his face with a blanket when using the computer, lest a camera be remotely activated. When he goes to ground after being charged with violating the Espionage Act, facing thirty years in prison, he stays silent in case nearby microphones capture his voice. By the end of the picture, Snowden and Greenwald scribble communiqués onto paper and share them back and forth, before tearing them up. It’s not paranoia if they’re really following you.

Citizenfour ­(named after Snowden’s codename of choice) is paced like the great paranoid-man political thrillers of the 1970s - Three Days of the Condor, All the President’s Men, The Conversation – many of which similarly depict espionage and shadowy government actions as perfectly banal, and all the more terrifying because of it.

Set almost entirely within those increasingly closed-in hotel rooms while the world around them is shaken up, Poitras makes this potentially-tedious exercise seem claustrophobic in the most enthralling way.

Citizenfour reminds us of the danger of apathy; of our unspoken acceptance of illegal, unethical activities by those in charge, simply due to convenience. (Think of how quickly we accept the Terms and Conditions of apps asking for more and more access to our private information.) Left unexplored by the movie is the value ill-gotten information sometimes offers, and whether or not our freedoms are worth compromising for it. (Definitely not, but hey, the debate is worth having.)

It also shows the toll paid by the journalists who go down the rabbit hole for our sake, like Neo, only to become targets themselves. In the wake of Peter Greste’s release from Egypt, this couldn’t be timelier.

However, the film is maybe most valuable for giving us our lengthiest, most human glimpse at Snowden himself. The smartest man in any room, and happy for everyone to know it, Citizenfour at least disputes the notion he was simply a narcissist looking to become the next Julian Assange (who gets a cameo here, assisting Snowden’s exit from Hong Kong). This, even as he discusses abandoning his family and long-time girlfriend with near-detachment. The way the feature portrays him, Snowden’s rage against the machine is true, and warranted. Most shockingly: he’s also apparently a Selena Gomez fan, when, in one of the flick’s only comic moments, ‘Come and Get It’ plays over his hotel TV.

Those who secretly love that song too, be wary: your Spotify account is not as secret as you think it is.

4/5

In selected cinemas. Rated M for coarse language.