The Report (Scott Z. Burns, 2019)

[domino harvey]

Also, what is THE _______ REPORT? He only watches movies he's involved in making that many times

EDIT: Apparently this is Scott Z Burns' the Torture Report

[Never Cursed]

There’s a post-9/11 CIA movie coming out this year currently titled “The Report” on IMDB. The cast and crew page lists Soderbergh as a producer. I note that Anette Benning looks to be a dead-on Dianne Feinstein.

Ah, beat me to it.

[whaleallright]

so after all that beef from DePalma, Soderbergh is making his own Redacted!

[domino harvey]

Amazon just paid $14 million for this, so here's the first movie we know is going to be an awards juggernaut next season (which also probably means they're going to sit on it all year). Driver is getting great notices in particular

[knives]

The reviews make it sound like a Soderbergh film which is exciting.

[DarkImbecile]

Scott Z. Burns’ The Report

[knives]

Guess some one has to watch this so might as well be me.

Burns has clearly been a grade A student of Soderbergh. This is an exciting and stimulating film that is almost too perfectly acted. Alas as Lance Henriksen said Burns wasn't taught everything. There are moments when the exposition feels like exposition whereas Soderbergh often has the ability to make these situations feel improvised (e.g. The Informant!) or something imbued with character building (e.g. Traffic). Burns instead depends on the situation to build the exposition in. We get briefings where the back and forth makes sense, but that just makes it feel like well articulated exposition rather than an exciting movie which this often is. TBN in particular is the film's secret MVP always ensuring his often times difficult dialog makes sense and leaves an impression of tension in the audience.

The film as well is a visual beauty knocking off Soderbergh in the best of way (though really only two filters are used which is no fun). It is disappointing that the past filter seems to serve just to make those sequences nu-metal (I'm making a lot of very middle school me references here) though it works to get at the basic unpleasantness of the scenes and place us in the seat of those being tortured so at least it thematically works even if it doesn't provide for the most compelling palate.

[DarkImbecile]

I also caught this last fall, and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it:

9.) The Report (Burns) - Probably the most effective 'message' movie I've seen in quite some time. Scott Z. Burns manages to condense an absurd amount of information into a package that manages to be simultaneously dense, entertaining, and disturbing in a surprisingly bi-partisan manner. The script somehow finds room for some choice dialogue and makes space for supporting actors like Corey Stoll, Jon Hamm, Maura Tierney, and Annette Bening to do more than just exposition dump (though there is plenty of that). While certainly aimed at anti-torture liberals, I think many Democrats will be surprised to discover how the film casts doubt on the actions of many of their heroes over the past couple of decades. My most substantial complaint is that Driver's character isn't given quite enough shading or nuance to avoid coming off as a paragon of virtue, but overall this was surprisingly effective.

[knives]

That really does get at the pleasures of the film quite well. The movie reminded me a lot of Silkwood though Driver's protagonist is more of a Kantian enigma.