Reality: Film Review
Sydney Sweeney has been in plenty of movies already, but she is finally starting to get the leading roles she deserves following her success with Euphoria and The White Lotus – and Tina Satter‘s Reality is a great example of the parts she should be getting.
On 3 June 2017, Reality Winner (Sweeney), a NSA translator, returned to her home in Augusta, Georgia and was greeted by two FBI agents – Justin Garrick (Josh Hamilton) and R. Wallace Taylor (Marchant Davis). They had obtained a warrant to search her home, phone and person and wanted to speak to her about leaking classified information to the press.
The script of the movie is the literal transcript of that interrogation verbatim. The dialogue begins after Garrick presses record on his device beside her car window and ends when Reality is arrested. Given the classified nature of the transcript, some pieces of information are redacted – and this is reflected visually by the person vanishing from the scene briefly when the redacted part is spoken. To prove that the dialogue is sticking to the transcript so accurately, Satter occasionally shows the document being written out onscreen as the words are spoken.
Because the dialogue is taken loyally from the transcript, we don’t get any context to work from and are dropped right in at the deep end. I didn’t know Reality’s story or what she did so I went into this blind. I think that works best (hence why I haven’t told you more in the plot summary) because I was on tenterhooks waiting for the crucial information. Everything is revealed at the height of the interrogation and we are given little glimpses of flashback to fill in the gaps left by the audio.
Because of this device, the film is essentially a reconstruction of the search and interview in real time, although Satter has imagined some of the visual elements. That means there’s some mundane chat there and here and a faff about sorting out her pets. But because we don’t know what’s happened and Reality is acting like she has no idea, I was gripped the entire time. Plus, you are rewarded for your patience when Reality’s act unravels later.
This is based on Satter’s play, Is This A Room, and it certainly feels like one. It is (unsurprisingly) dialogue-heavy and largely takes place in an unused room at the back of Reality’s house. It is all about the words and the performances, which are stellar.
I’m a huge fan of Sweeney’s and think she is terrific in Euphoria and again here. It’s fascinating watching her evolve from an innocent and clueless girl at the start to the person she is at the end. Hamilton and Davis are brilliant too – you never know where you stand with them. They’re super friendly one minute and threatening the next.
Reality is a tense, gripping thriller that offers a completely unique take on the typical whistleblower story.
In cinemas from Friday 2nd June