End of Year MOVIE JOURNAL

[Chris Knipp]

THE REPORT (Scott Z. Burns 2019). Caution: contains disturbing images of torture. Covers zealous Senate staffer Dan Jones (Adam Driver) who works for years doing a report for Sen. Diane Feinstein (Annette Benning) on the CIA's illegal post-9/11 use of torture (aka advanced interrogation techniques aka AIT) on terrorism suspects. Jones's 'relentless pursuit of the truth leads to explosive findings that uncover the lengths to which the nation's top intelligence agency went to destroy evidence, subvert the law, and hide a brutal secret from the American public' - that torture does not gather information, humane and friendly interrogation does. The film is as dry and relentless as Dan Jones, and perhaps naive in thinking the unconverted will be made sophisticated in this matter by such a treatment. "Adam Driver’s gracefully intelligent performance as an investigator never quite zaps this dramatically frozen procedural to life" (Jeannette Catsoullis, New York Times). Shocking details though. Watched (as an alternate to Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in Star Wars) on Amazon Prime Dec. 21, 2019. Limited theatrical release by Amazon. Metascore 66, but the Guardian (Benjamin Lee) gives it 4/5 stars.