Things Are About to Get Real: the FBI Whistleblower Movie that’s Ripped from the Headlines
This isn’t the espionage movie your Dad goes to see. Based on true events, “Reality” is a lean tension-ticker… where every word of dialogue is taken directly from an FBI interrogation transcript.
good.film
2 years ago
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Why should I see Reality? Being put in Reality’s shoes, you’re left to ponder “What would I do?” It’s a film that gets you thinking about loyalty, right vs. wrong and the bigger picture of cover-ups in our government. And knowing it’s the real dialogue we’re hearing is fascinating. If authenticity rocks your cinema seat, you’ll want to be front row for this.
What social causes does “Reality” explore? Democracy & Society. Law & Justice.
First things first: yep, “Reality” is her real name. Aside from that, 25-year-old Reality Leigh Winner is pretty much your usual American millennial. She’s a yoga instructor, a cat- and dog-mum, and a wearer of scrunchies and Cons.
Okay, there’s one other unusual thing about Reality: she’s an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator. And going by the two FBI agents that confront her outside her home one June afternoon, she might’ve landed herself in some ‘highly classified’ trouble.
Is the dialogue in “Reality” really real? Like, really?
Really. From the moment that Agent Garrick raps on her car window, every word we hear in “Reality” actually happened. The film takes the interrogation between Reality Winner (Sydney Sweeney) and Agents Garrick & Taylor - and acts out the transcript in its entirety on screen.
It’s an absorbing technique, like a documentary where you’re a silent observer. Which turns out to be a pretty apt metaphor for what Reality may or may not have done to warrant this FBI visit. What plays out over the next 80 minutes is troublesome, tense, and transfixing.
How does “Reality” unfold?
We won’t lie: Reality is odd and cryptic, at first. No busting-the-door-down stuff here. The Agents are nice, like really nice, as they explain they have a warrant. They chat in Reality’s driveway as two other agents check her home for weapons. They show concern for her pets. They help her bring her groceries inside. It’s staggeringly ordinary.
If you were scripting a thriller, you wouldn’t write it this way - it’d be a bit of a snoozefest if James Bond kept asking his latest captive if they’d like a glass of water, or if they’re comfortable standing. But in “Reality”, this ho-hum procedural chat has the opposite effect.
Because we know it’s real - and because we know these agents wouldn’t have a warrant to interrogate Reality without some serious evidence to back it up - the opening scenes draw us in like a spider into a web. We’re asking - who is this girl? What is she accused of? How can a mid-20s yoga teacher even attract the attention of the FBI at all?
What did Reality do IRL?
We start to pick up clues amid the agents’ casual (or seemingly casual) chit chat. They’re birdseeding her: a few banal queries about her pets, and then a pointed question about classified documents, or where she was stationed in the Air Force.
Props to Sweeney’s acting, because these secret-agent vibes just don’t gel with the normal, helpful, relaxed young woman on the lawn. She’s not even stressed. But that starts to change when the agents move proceedings inside Reality’s home… and the real interrogation begins.
That kicks off our next set of mental questions. Was Reality a spy? A defector? Or working with the Russians? What did she leak? Is she a female Snowden? Or for a reference closer to home, more like Bernard Collaery who blew the whistle on Australia’s corrupt espionage of East Timor.
Okay… so Reality is about treason?
That depends on your definition… and “Reality” is designed to make you question that definition. The charge is that Reality leaked a classified document about Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. Not exactly something the US Government tends to shrug off.
Reality had the means (a security clearance) and the opportunity (the military contractor she worked for had a pretty lax attitude towards printing documents). But did she have a motive?
Through her increasingly fidgety answers and some quick flashbacks, “Reality” gives us an idea of what it’s like to see the true US Government at work. How frustrated she felt as an intelligence contractor, being surrounded by lies. How powerless she felt as an American citizen, watching her sense of justice being rocked by foreign powers with corrupt intent.
The film asks us: if you found something that proved there was wrongdoing on a huge scale, would you let it be known? Would you take the risk? Reality wonders aloud, “Why do I even have this job if I’m just going to be helpless? I knew it was secret. But I also knew I had pledged service to the American people.”
It’s a compelling dance to watch this truth slowly emerge as the agents probe and press Reality. It’s also a real insight into the mental anguish that many famous, and not so famous, whistleblowers must’ve gone through.
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What are critics saying about Reality?
- “A forceful gut-punch of cinema verité” | THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
- “It’s Sydney Sweeney’s show. A tour de force” | THE PLAYLIST
- “A strikingly well-realised piece of filmmaking” | DAILY TELEGRAPH
- “A fascinating insight into the subtleties of human interaction” | DEADLINE
Fully on board, or disagree big time? We’d love to hear your take. Leave a review to share your thoughts with the good.film community!
So… what’s the takeaway from Reality?
There’s a unique visual language to “Reality”. Bursts of colour, slo-mo and filmic elements keep our interest in that cold white room, amplify the tension, and give us clues to what Reality is feeling - and whether or not she’s being truthful.
Kudos to director Tina Satter, whose creativity has taken a real-life interrogation and transformed it into a taut, immersive and dreamlike film about morals and our choices. In a recent interview, Satter stated that her hope for the film is simply that we understand these people aren’t creations - this is about real life.
“We get to see inside one room on one Saturday afternoon in America in 2017,” Satter says. “You’re watching this human intellectually trying to fight for her life. I just want audiences to see this story, and I think it’s really interesting to see the (US) state at work.”
Agreed. “Reality” gives us the chance to question concepts like truth and power within powerful systems, through the lens of an intimate and authentic encounter. It’s sure to spark some conversations long after the credits roll, especially the one big question:
Would you blow the whistle?
