By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Timed to coincide with the release of Oliver Stone’s docudrama “Snowden,” the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International launched an initiative to get Edward Snowden a presidential pardon from President Obama.
So is whistleblower Snowden a 21st century hero or traitor?
Director Stone (“The Walk,” “World Trade Center”) believes that knowing the backstory of the contractor who leaked classified documents about the National Security Agency’s enormous invasions of privacy will influence your opinion.
If you’ve seen Laura Poitras’ incisive, Oscar-winning documentary “Citizenfour,” you’re familiar with much of Snowden’s tale. Stone’s begins in 2013, when Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets with Poitras (Melissa Leo) and journalists Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Ewan MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson) in a Hong Kong hotel room.
Geeky Snowden presents them with guarded information he’d smuggled out of his NSA office in Hawaii that documented the government’s massive surveillance program, encompassing not only American citizens but overseas contacts.
Working with screenwriter Kiernan Fitzgerald from books by Luke Harding and Anatoly Kucherena, Oliver Stone utilizes flashbacks to show how idealistic Snowden, who came from a military family, enlisted in Special Forces training and was discharged after suffering broken legs.
Patriotic, he went into Intelligence work, displaying such remarkable skill as a computer analyst to his CIA boss, Corbin O’Brian (Rhys Ifans), that he got increasingly higher NSA security clearances, which led to Snowden’s disillusioned, almost-messianic determination for disclosure.
In order to humanize Snowden, Stone shows how he solves a Rubik’s cube one-handed and dwells on his strained relationship with his liberal girlfriend, photographer Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley).
In the epilogue, the real Edward Snowden, now in exile in Moscow, states: “When I left Hawaii, I lost everything. I had a stable life, stable love, family, future. I lost that life but I’ve gained a new one, and I am incredibly fortunate. And I think the greatest freedom I’ve gained is that I no longer have to worry about what happens tomorrow, because I’m happy with what I’ve done today.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Snowden” is a slick, sycophantic 6, glossing over the U.S. government’s deplorable actions and the unintended consequences of Snowden’s disclosures.
It’s interesting that Luke Scott decided to make his directorial debut with the sci-fi thriller “Morgan,” since his father, Ridley Scott, made one of the first movies about Artificial Intelligence – “Blade Runner” (1982) – about a cop who hunts humanoid replicants.
In many ways, “Morgan” resembles “Blade Runner.” Instead of a teeming metropolis, however, it’s set in a top secret, remote facility, a decrepit mansion located in the deep woods, where a risk management consultant, Lee Weathers (Rooney Mara), is sent to investigate and evaluate a scientific experiment that has gone awry.
Classified as an L-9 prototype, Morgan is a synthetic, bio-engineered organism. Chronologically, just five years old, Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) looks like a pale, precocious teenager with dark, piercing eyes.
Wearing a gray hoodie, pants and sneakers, she appears to be androgynous with a sulky, childlike innocence that belies her remarkable physical and intellectual abilities.
Morgan has been painstakingly raised by a devoted team of scientists, led by Dr. Lui Chang (Michelle Yeoh), along with Dr. Simon Ziegler (Toby Jones), analyst Amy (Rose Leslie) and their hunky nutritionist/chef (Boyd Holbrook).
Just recently, however, Morgan inexplicably turned in rage on her behavioral psychiatrist Kathy Grieff (Jennifer Jason-Leigh), brutally stabbing her in the eye.
Corporate troubleshooter Weathers and psychiatrist Dr. Alan Shapiro (Paul Giamatti) must sort things out and determine whether Morgan should be terminated. Significantly, Weathers packs a gun.
Working from Seth Owens’ all-too-thin script, Luke Scott is unable to prolong the initial sense of unease and eerie intrigue, stumbling into a tonal shift midway, which descends into bloody stalk ‘n’ slash carnage. And, unfortunately, a grim plot twist, which should have come as a total surprise, didn’t.
On the Granger Gauge, “Morgan” is a synthetic 6. “Ex Machina” (2015) did it so much better.
The haunted house is a staple of the supernatural horror genre but “The Disappointments Room” is a dismal, wannabe thriller that has little to offer.
Trying to recover after the traumatic death of their infant daughter, grieving Dana (Kate Beckinsale) and David (Mel Raido) move from Brooklyn to rural North Carolina with their young son (Duncan Joiner).
Dana is an architect, so she’s set to remodel the cavernous, if dilapidated country estate they bought. But when she discovers the long-lost key to a hidden attic room, she opens herself to nightmarish evil.
A local historian (Marcia de Rousse) explains that this mysterious chamber, whose only entrance was hidden behind a cabinet, was where wealthy families incarcerated their disabled/disfigured children, effectively keeping them out-of-sight. Apparently, their troubled ghosts still prowl the premises.
Along with losing all track of time, distraught Dana’s eerie explorations lead to nightmarish visions of the former owner, satanic Judge Blacker (Gerald McRaney), and his demonic black dog. Plus there’s the local handyman, Ben (Lucas Till), flirting with her while repairing the leaky roof.
Scripted by Wentworth Miller (best known as Michael Scofield on Fox TV’s “Prison Break”) and director D.J. Caruso (“Eagle Eye,” “Disturbia”), it’s filled with malignant hallucinations, resulting in a witless endeavor that, understandably, sat on the shelf when Relativity Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, 2015.
While Kate Beckinsale, Lucas Till and Gerald McRaney do the best they can with their underwritten roles, it’s a lost cause.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Disappointments Room” is a derivative 2 – but its title should be credited with truth-in-advertising.
( Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
