From an FBI interrogation transcript to your silver screen
I was lucky enough to get to visit the USA a few times growing up, and man, I loved it. I used to wish that I lived there, but I can honestly say that this had more to do with the widespread availability of Pokémon cards and the enormous variety of T.V. channels showing cartoons than any understanding of what life would actually be like living in America. I still like America—I visited earlier this year—but is it okay for me to say that I’m glad I don’t live there?
Ireland isn’t perfect. We’re plagued by our own variety of incompetent government officials and scandals, but it just isn’t happening on the same scale as the USA. The divisiveness of the political landscape across the Atlantic seems exhausting, and I’m glad that I can generally tune it out and not have to care too much about the specifics of what’s going on over there.
All of this to say that I had no clue who Reality Winner was before watching Reality. Maybe you don’t either and for that reason, I’m not about to tell you too much about her. A lot of my enjoyment of this film came from simply not knowing who this woman was, or why she was being interrogated.
Let me back up for a second. Reality is a unique movie. The entire film’s dialogue is taken verbatim from the transcript of an FBI interrogation tape, as told to the viewer up front. Reality Winner, played by Syndey Sweeney, is interrogated by the FBI in her home while it’s being searched. Why it’s being searched, and for what, the viewer doesn’t know and I’m not about to tell you. The fact that the movie opens with a clip of Fox News reporting on President Trump’s firing of former FBI director James Comey—something even I remember hearing about—should give you an indication of where things might go, though.
I imagine many American viewers are well aware of the situation, but for those not in the know, the reveals are slow and filled with tension, thanks in part to two incredible performances by Syndey Sweeney and Josh Hamilton. Sweeney tracks Reality’s increasingly frazzled state of mind with unerring precision, and Hamilton has the incredible ability to come across as both the friendliest guy in the world and a sharp, menacing presence at the same time. It’s worth watching simply to see these two play off each other.
The film does take it’s time getting to the point though, and some might find the first twenty or thirty minutes to be somewhat meandering. This is real life dialogue, and for that reason it can feel rambling and a little boring. Of course, it also adds to how jarring and surreal the whole experience is for Reality. The small talk the FBI agents force with her is at times excruciatingly awkward and patronising, and watching Reality process all this while trying to remain calm really kept my eyes glued to the screen.
Most of the film takes place entirely in Reality’s house—a good chunk of it in a featureless, empty room—but tight camera work and blocking keeps the film from ever feeling stagnant or visually dull. There are some stylish editing choices made for when sections of the transcript are redacted, and once the pace of the interrogation picks up, I found myself totally losing track of time.
Really, the only flaw in Reality is how close it wants to stick to, well, reality. Every moment of this film is taken from the real-life transcript of events, and although I enjoyed the moments where the film touches on the state of American politics, I found myself yearning for a deeper interrogation of this moment in modern American history. Interestingly, there’s another movie about Reality Winner titled Winner coming out this year. I hope that movie takes a bit of a deeper dive into the cultural context of Winner’s situation, because it is fascinating, and had me Googling all sorts of things after the movie cut to credits.
Reality is worth your time. At a brisk hour and twenty-two minutes, it flies by. Just do yourself a favour, and don’t look up anything about it beforehand. But even if you do know the situation, I still recommend the film, because I doubt you’re aware of exactly how this all went down. It’s not often a film lets you truly feel like a fly on the wall.
***
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