Probably more interesting as a set of filmmaking decisions — to make something that looks like this, with this focus on federal surveillance, with multiple scenes of what the 21st century would call “enhanced interrogations” in the midst of the Bin Laden manhunt — than as a movie
The highs of this are incredible, but Smith’s charisma only really carries the public life sections while any scene away from the spotlight feels like he’s either searching or, worse, not searching. Although this would break almost any biopic (isn’t the reason we watch about these in-between moments, to get a little closer to the person behind the persona, to see a little bit more of the well from which we drink?), Mann and Smith do step up to the…
The Sennott/Hearon/Jalees trio makes this movie more watchable, but this legitimately might have the worst screenplay I’ve come across in a year or more. The movie may pride itself on not being a straight line — being against the oversimple ideal suggested by the self-help book Sennott leafs through — but the movie doesn’t reward the viewer for going along with its capriciousness-of-the-afflicted-mind structure. It may still be personally brave to express the crippling effects of trauma, however we’ve long…
