With MARK FELT: THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE, Peter Landesman complements an earlier "Watergate" movie

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

See Edward Snowden blow that whistle in Laura Poitras' odd and alarming doc, CITIZENFOUR

A documentary that pretty much tells itself -- with some questions, of course, about what was chosen for inclusion and what was not -- CITIZENFOUR shows and tells the tale of how and why whistle-blower Edward Snowden first approached journalist/filmmaker Laura Poitras (shown below) and journalist Glen Greenwald in order to go public concerning the illegal surveillance being carried out on the American populace (and elsewhere throughout the world) by the NSA in collusion with our government.

However you define Mr. Snowden on the chart/scale from terrorist to crimi-nal to whistle-blower to hero, the movie should be of great interest simply in allowing you to see and hear him in action and repose. Well, as much repose as someone in his singular state at this time could manage. (We do see him groom-ing himself and trying to get a certain hair style down pat. Ah, vanity! On the other hand, he's human, so why the hell not?)

Poitras has inter-cut various interviews and archival footage having to do with the way we are governed now -- spied upon illegally, as our President assures us that nothing of the sort is taking place. (Just as George W. Bush was an in-office liar, so now is Barack Obama.) This information sets the scene, against which we can place what has happened because of Snowden's actions into some kind of perspective.

When he tells us and Poitras (and Greenwald, with whom he is shown, above) what he is doing and why, and especially how he feels it needs to be handled so that his actions can be perceived less in any personal way that would turn the spotlight on him rather than where it needs to be -- on what the NSA is doing illegally -- I find the young man, as I think you will, too, to be believable and not a little heroic. He also explains why he does not himself feel able to determine which of the information he is sending is actually a matter of National Security, and so must leave that to journalists who are more informed on this subject.

Along with visuals of some of the written communications between our protagonists (the above is one of the less interesting of these), we hear from other whistle-blowers like William Binney, who was an NSA employee, and watch, too, as another liar, Keith Alexander, purgers himself in his testimony. It is against all this that Mr. Snowden's revelations take on their impact. And when toward the end of this engaging and alarming documentary, Jacob Appelbaum explains to us that our current concerns over privacy are really just an extension of the liberty and freedom we have been seeking since, well, the American Revolution, the movie should ring a very loud alarm bell.

Too often asleep at the wheel of our own presumed liberty, we need to be roused into some kind of action -- which is what these whistle-blowers keep trying to do. Eventually, our own government, if its swing to the moneyed and powerful continues, will become the facility that enslaves us completely. Meanwhile we can thank Snowden and his ilk for having the courage to do their part, and journalists and filmmakers like Greenwald and Poitras for bringing the work of these whistle-blowers to our attention.

One final jolt is provided by Greenwald, who lets us know that he has a new whistle-blower waiting in the wings. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, Citizenfour (from Radius/TWC and running 114 minutes), which doubles as the name of the film and the moniker taken by Snowden, begins its theatrical run this Friday, October 24, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema. Elsewhere? No doubt. And eventually onto DVD and digital. 

VEHICLE 19: In Mukunda Michael Dewil's South African chase thriller, Paul Walker goes fast and furious, B-movie level

First-off, TrustMovies sees nothing wrong with a good "B" movie. We should have more of them, as in the good ol' 1940s and 50s eras, when I was growing up. "A" movies these days are so often bloated in length, while paltry in style and content, that the new Paul Walker vehicle made in South African and titled VEHICLE 19 -- though for all I know it may be an "A" movie so far as South African is concerned (we don't see that many home-grown films from there; District 9 was something of an anomaly) -- seems to me a good example of a generally tight, twisty little B film.

Written and directed by a South African fellow with the mouthful of a name -- Mukunda Michael Dewil (shown at right) -- the movie tosses you into an immediate car chase with Mr. Walker (below) at the wheel (Fast & Furious franchise fans should feel right at home with the person, if not the place). Then, after some speedy, scary moments, we come to a sudden halt, and then we're taken back to a few hours earlier, as the plot kicks into action. While there is not a hell of a lot of plot, there's enough to keep us and Walker occupied tidily for the 85-minute running time. Basically, this is one of those in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time movies, but with a little bureaucratic twist in which an employee makes a simple mistake in her assignment of a particular object. And then all hell breaks loose.

I don't want to go much further plot-wise because the movie has a couple of neat surprises up its sleeve, one of which involves another character. I will just say that, as usual, with films in which you find dirty cops at the top of the food chain -- from L.A. Confidential to the recent Eden -- things do not look all that bright for the protagonists on view.

Mr. Walker's character, Michael, has a checkered history himself, which adds to our hero's problems, and while the actor plays mostly angry and determined (with a couple of very moving moments of concern and grief), but he handles these two states well enough. Naima McLean (above, right) plays her "whistleblower" role quite well, too, and the only other major character is essayed by Gys de Villiers, first heard as a phone voice and finally given the solidity of a body to go with it.

In an article I searched out about the making of the film, it was said that all the action takes place inside the titular vehicle. I don't quite remember the movie that way. There are plenty of scenes shot from outside the car looking in, so this is not on of those "contained thrillers" like Buried or Brake.) I also think I recall Walker's getting out of the vehicle, as well. Still, most of the movie does take place in the generally speeding car, and the fact that it gets such good mileage out of this situation is very much to the filmmaker's credit as writer and director.

Distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, Vehicle 19, a good title, the meaning of which comes eventually clear, opens this Friday via AMC theaters in ten cities across the country, including New York City (at the Empire 25), Ontario (in California, at the Ontario Mills 30), Atlanta (at the Southlake Pavilion in Morrow, GA), Chicago (at the Barrington in So. Barrington, Il.), Dallas at the Mesquite in Mesquite, TX), Houston (at the Studio, Houston), Miami (at the Sunset Place in South Miami), Philadelphia (at the Neshaminy in Bensalem, Pa.), San Francisco (at the Deer Valley Stadium in Antioch, Ca.), Washington DC (at the Hoffman in Alexandria, VA). If you don't live near these locations, I expect VOD and DVD will be coming semi-soon.

DVDebut: DANGEROUS MAN/DANIEL ELLSBERG/PENTAGON PAPERS

The only thing wrong with the superb documentary that makes its debut on DVD today, July 20, is the length of its marquee-hoarding title. The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (I didn't capitalize this, as is my usual style, for fear that it would take up the remainder of the day's available space) is the grade-A product of filmmakers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith (with co-writing by Michael Chandler and Lawrence Lerew).  It is so immediately accessible, thanks to the talent of this creative team, that I think young or old, Democrat or Republican*, there will be few who can nay-say the importance of uncovering the truth -- and blasting it out -- once a government has lied to its own people about something as important as a war that has cost thousands of lives at home and tens of thousands in the adversarial country.

How and why Daniel Ellsberg (that's he back in the day, above, and present-day, below), the man who exposed the Lyndon Johnson administration's lies about Vietnam, accomplished his great feat is the subject of the film.  The impact of his actions on how we view the lies that led us into the current war in Iraq will not, I hope, go unnoticed by viewers of the film -- though the filmmakers themselves make reference only obliquely, as I recall, to this connection. I first saw the documentary just prior to its Film Forum run last September, at which time I'm happy to say, I predicted its "Oscar" nomination for Best Documentary. (I wouldn't have minded at all had it won, though I admit that The Cove was, in its own way, unique, extremely important, and the epitome of smart, galvanizing "advocacy film-making.")

If you have not yet seen the Ellsberg movie, consider this your heads-up.  It is simply too good to miss, from both a content standpoint and as an object lesson on how to put together a talking-heads/historical footage/you-are-there documentary that is moving, riveting and goddamn important.  You can find my earlier review/post here.

*I would dearly love to believe what I wrote above, but considering the behavior of most Republicans, from elected officials to rank-and-file, over that past decade (or more), it is clear that they have about as much concern for truth and transparency-in-government as the still unprosecuted ex-President Bush fils and war criminal Henry Kissinger.  Still, I have hope that there are a few Republicans and many Democrats out there who do understand the importance of this -- even if, as it continues to appear, our current (and -- oh, my gosh, he's a Democrat!) President does not.