Air Force linguist and NSA contractor Reality Winner (Sydney Sweeney) is arrested by the FBI for leaking classified information about the Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election to a whistleblowing website. Her story is adapted from the 2019 stage play by Tina Satter (who also directs) and James Paul Dallas. Dialogue is pulled directly from Reality Winner’s FBI interview and bar a couple of establishing shots, the entire film consists of just that interview.
That results in Reality’s greatest strength and its only weakness. On the plus side is the obvious realism, with all the “umm”s and tangents about pets and holidays in the chat intact. That is helped by a brilliantly frazzled performance by Sweeney and a coolly charming one by Josh Hamilton as the lead interrogator.
But, for those who are not clued up on the election story, the way the film plays out, including an ingenious way of dealing with sections of redacted dialogue, could result in confusion about what exactly was leaked.
However, this is a smart film about an important subject matter.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10