{"id":553745,"date":"2023-02-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/reality-review-sydney-sweeney-is-devastating-as-reality-winner-in-taut-thriller-shaped-from-fbi-transcript\/"},"modified":"2023-02-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-18T21:00:00","slug":"reality-review-sydney-sweeney-is-devastating-as-reality-winner-in-taut-thriller-shaped-from-fbi-transcript","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/reality-review-sydney-sweeney-is-devastating-as-reality-winner-in-taut-thriller-shaped-from-fbi-transcript\/","title":{"rendered":"#\u2018Reality\u2019 Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Devastating as Reality Winner in Taut Thriller Shaped from FBI Transcript"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3f582f48150\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3f582f48150\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/reality-review-sydney-sweeney-is-devastating-as-reality-winner-in-taut-thriller-shaped-from-fbi-transcript\/#%E2%80%98Reality_Review_Sydney_Sweeney_Is_Devastating_as_Reality_Winner_in_Taut_Thriller_Shaped_from_FBI_Transcript\" >\u2018Reality\u2019 Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Devastating as Reality Winner in Taut Thriller Shaped from FBI Transcript<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/reality-review-sydney-sweeney-is-devastating-as-reality-winner-in-taut-thriller-shaped-from-fbi-transcript\/#Reality\" >Reality<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%98Reality_Review_Sydney_Sweeney_Is_Devastating_as_Reality_Winner_in_Taut_Thriller_Shaped_from_FBI_Transcript\"><\/span>\u2018Reality\u2019 Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Devastating as Reality Winner in Taut Thriller Shaped from FBI Transcript<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Playwright Tina Satter\u2019s <em>Is This a Room<\/em> is one of the more anomalous standouts of recent New York theater seasons. A 65-minute verbatim docudrama molded entirely out of FBI interrogation tran<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">script<\/a>s leading to the arrest of NSA whistle-blower Reality Winner, it was propelled by stellar reviews from a small downtown space to a leading Off Broadway house, before landing on Broadway for a short run in 2021 that consolidated its critical success even if it struggled commercially.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Showing the same uncanny ability to draw suspense out of a ripped-from-the-headlines situation with a known outcome, Satter has adapted the play as a feature that makes for a forceful gut punch of cinema v\u00e9rit\u00e9.<\/p>\n<div class=\"review-summary-card\">\n<div class=\" lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-a-125 u-background-color-honey-light \">\n<div class=\"lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column u-width-275@tablet u-border-b-1@mobile-max u-border-r-1@tablet u-border-dotted lrv-u-margin-r-150 lrv-u-padding-r-150 lrv-u-margin-r-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-r-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-b-125@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-b-075@mobile-max\">\n<h3 id=\"title-of-a-story\" class=\"c-title  lrv-u-font-family-primary u-font-size-34 u-font-size-38@desktop-xl lrv-u-line-height-small lrv-u-margin-b-125 \"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Reality\"><\/span>\n<p>                    Reality     <\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>                    <span class=\"lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-font-family-accent lrv-u-font-weight-bold lrv-u-color-brand-primary lrv-u-font-size-16 lrv-u-display-block\">The Bottom Line<\/span><br \/>\n                    <span class=\"c-span  u-font-size-22@tablet u-font-style-italic lrv-u-font-family-secondary\"><\/p>\n<p>    Truth is terrifying.<br \/>\n    <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"lrv-u-line-height-large a-children-icon-spacing-none lrv-u-font-family-accent lrv-u-font-size-18\">\n<p>                            <strong>Venue<\/strong>: Berlin Film Festival (Panorama)<br \/><strong>Cast<\/strong>: Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, March\u00e1nt Davis, Benny Elledge, John Way<br \/><strong>Director<\/strong>: Tina Satter<br \/><strong>Screenwriters<\/strong>: Tina Satter, James Paul Dallas, based on Satter\u2019s play, <em>Is This a Room<\/em><br \/><span><br \/>\n                                1 hour 25 minutes           <\/span>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    By swapping the stage production\u2019s minimalist design for a scrupulously realistic representation of the house in Augusta, Georgia, that Winner was renting in 2017, <em>Reality<\/em>, as the film has been retitled, risks diminishing the uncomfortable convergence of the banal and the surreal that characterized the play. But if anything, that uneasiness is even more potent on the screen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Satter shows unfaltering command of the medium for a first-time film director, notably in her penetrating use of the closeup, which makes the steadily exposed raw nerves of Sydney Sweeney\u2019s remarkable performance in the title role all the more disturbing to witness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    The parts of the interrogation detailing the specific material Winner leaked to the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> were redacted in the original transcript, which Satter conveys by switching for brief moments to a blank screen. But anyone who followed the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> cycle knows that the 25-year-old former Air Force intelligence officer shared a document containing proof of Russian cyber interference in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    That fact anchors the drama in the years of the Trump administration, which went to great pains to keep that information out of the public sphere. It also suggests why Winner was given such an unusually harsh sentence of 5 years and 3 months jail time. While she was granted supervised release after four, it remains the heaviest sentence ever imposed under the espionage act against an American citizen for leaking classified documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Satter and co-writer James Paul Dallas open out the play judiciously for the screen, without in any way straying from its grounding in every word that was said, every bit of throat-clearing or nervous laughter, every awkward pause, on June 3, 2017. The most notable addition is a brief prologue, with Reality seen from behind in an office cubicle at a small firm under contract to the National Security Agency, where she worked as a translator. Fox News blasts from every TV monitor in the room, as details are revealed of Trump firing FBI director James Comey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    When Reality returns home from the grocery store three weeks later, she\u2019s greeted in her driveway by two FBI officers, the relaxed, regular-guy Garrick (Josh Hamilton), dressed in Saturday-afternoon dad-wear, and his sterner, more taciturn partner Taylor (March\u00e1nt Davis), whose buff physicality is immediately threatening. They exchange small talk before casually revealing that they have warrants to search her house, car and phone due to possible mishandling of classified documents. An unnamed third officer (Benny Elledge) arrives soon after, a hulking presence made more unsettling by his silence and his belittling stare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    There\u2019s almost a comic element to their stiffness as they negotiate Reality\u2019s concerns about her rescue dog, which \u201cdoesn\u2019t like men,\u201d eventually allowing her to bring the animal out into the yard and secure it on a leash. The same goes for their questions about her cat, with the team of search officers that descend regularly reporting that it\u2019s either on or under the bed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    But the sly humor of the scene is undercut when the agents allow Reality to put her perishables away in the fridge and there\u2019s barely space for her small frame with all the testosterone in the kitchen. The sense of dread mounts as other officers stretch crime-scene tape around the perimeter of her yard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Hamilton is terrific at showing the forced bonhomie of Garrick\u2019s practiced \u201cgood cop\u201d routine; there\u2019s a quasi-jokiness as he questions her about guns in the house \u2014 she has three, including a pink AR-15 \u2014 about her CrossFit training and yoga, and her fluency in Farsi, Dari and Pashto. He seems almost sympathetic when she confesses her frustration at being rejected for deployment to Afghanistan as a translator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    But in the same way that Sweeney\u2019s body language dissolves from loose to rigid to broken, slowly crumbling inside as the seriousness of their visit becomes clear, Hamilton and the other actors gradually drop all pretense of this being a courtesy call designed to gather information. It\u2019s obvious from the transcript that they already know pretty much everything they need to know, and the ways in which that knowledge is slowly disclosed makes for nail-biting drama.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Reality\u2019s house is barely furnished, and the main part of the interrogation takes place in a shabby back room that\u2019s completely empty. She repeatedly apologizes for the lack of a place to sit, as if they\u2019re invited guests, but that allows Satter to play with the spatial and physical dynamics in crafty ways as the men loom around her. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    One of the heartbreaking aspects of Sweeney\u2019s layered performance is the subtle indications of Reality\u2019s awareness that Garrick\u2019s nice-guy act is mere professional role play. But she goes along with it because doing otherwise would mean dropping the last of her defenses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    Her interactions with the other agents are more unequivocally intimidated, causing her to shuffle nervously and at times collapse in on herself like a ragdoll. Satter rightly trusts her actors and her text to give dramatic life to Reality\u2019s ordeal without technical distractions, the only embellishments being Nathan Micay\u2019s prickly ambient score and occasional sound distortion to put us inside the protagonist\u2019s head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    While the action unfolds over less than two hours in a semblance of real time, the spiral of tragedy feels full-bodied, no matter where you stand on Winner\u2019s actions. It\u2019s shattering when she finally breaks down, admitting that with all the misinformation constantly being circulated, she asked herself if a pernicious attack on American election integrity shouldn\u2019t be made public. And what was she doing in that job if she had no power to expose such anti-Democratic sabotage? <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    \u201cAm I going to jail tonight?\u201d she asks the agents, getting boiler-plate evasive answers before they lead her outside to be cuffed. A sickening feeling wells up in your stomach as you watch this young woman who made a questionable decision fret about who\u2019s going to take care of her pets. In Sweeney\u2019s expertly calibrated performance, a complete departure from her work on <em>The White Lotus<\/em> and <em>Euphoria<\/em>, Reality often seems barely more than a teenager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n    The film concludes with the blustery overkill of a Republican spokesman spouting off to press about Winner being \u201ca quintessential example of an insider threat\u201d while Tucker Carlson foams at the mouth in his trademark showboating outrage. It hits just the right insidious note to make this tense, impressively sustained thriller about power, surveillance and moral responsibility linger in your head with many questions. Top of that list is \u201cWhat would I have done?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0004\">\n!function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\nif (f.fbq) return;\nn = f.fbq = function() {n.callMethod ? n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments);};\nif (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\nn.push = n;\nn.loaded = !0;\nn.version = '2.0';\nn.queue = [];\nt = b.createElement(e);\nt.async = !0;\nt.src = v;\ns = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\ns.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s);\n}(window, document, 'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', '352999048212581');\nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/reality-review-sydney-sweeney-reality-winner-1235325377\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Reality\u2019 Review: Sydney Sweeney Is Devastating as Reality Winner in Taut Thriller Shaped from FBI Transcript Playwright Tina Satter\u2019s Is This a Room is one of the more anomalous standouts of recent New York theater seasons. A 65-minute verbatim docudrama molded entirely out of FBI interrogation transcripts leading to the arrest of NSA whistle-blower Reality&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":553746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/REALITY_Still2_Paul_Yee-H-2023.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[138956,54824,138957,140148,126362],"class_list":["post-553745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-berlin-2023","tag-berlin-film-festival","tag-berlin-film-festival-reviews","tag-josh-hamilton","tag-sydney-sweeney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}