Adam Driver, Annette Bening, and Jon Hamm are among the many recognizable faces of this star-packed political drama.
Driver, pictured above in his ‘I’m goofy but I will save the world’ signature stare ????, plays Daniel J. Jones, an investigator working with the Senate. He is assigned to write a report (“the” report) about the CIA torture program post 9/11.
If you so much as liked Vice, the hit movie from earlier this year, you will love The Report. It covers similar grounds: incompetency, unclear intentions, confusion, etc; but in a way that is more to-the-point (which might make it feel dry to some). It also helps in understanding or getting a refresher on, how the Senate works and how organizations like the CIA interact with (bully) other branches of government.
I would almost go as far as to say that if you are a U.S. citizen, watching this movie, with its many goofy Adam Driver moments, is your civic duty.
"The film, written and directed by Scott Z. Burns, takes its cue from the stern dedication of its hero; the result feels pressurized, disheartening, and fraught."
— Anthony Lane
"A sense of quiet fury courses throughout the narrative, but we never see that explode onto the screen, and it's a more interesting, thoughtful film for it."
— Hannah Strong
The story of Daniel Jones, lead investigator for the US Senate’s sweeping study into the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, which was found to be brutal, immoral and ineffective. With the truth at stake, Jones battled tirelessly to make public what many in power sought to keep hidden.
This is a must see movie from the year 2019. The torture debacle, and the lies shrouding the unprofessional behavior of a wide-ranging array of national security personel is no less impactful in today’s America, as it was in the mid 2000s. Whatever you might think about the intelligence community, whatever political leaning you might have, this movie details a team effort put into exposing the way the American people is treated despite being given benefit of the doubt for in almost any matter. It does not get political, which is to emphasize the fact that the movie does not take sides and play partisanship, and lets the numbers and the factual events speak for themselves to convey what happened and how we should be aware of and interested in what goes on with the federal government and its agencies as responsible and involved citizens to strive to live up to the lofty ideals of this imperfect but evolving Democracy.
The Report is a no-nonsense investigative story about malpractices and abuses done by the CIA after 9/11. Adam Driver is flawless. The narrative is kept simple focusing more on the subject matter. One of the must-watch movies of 2019.