Democracy Dies on the Dark Side
From the same group of people who lecture you about “democracy dying in the dark,” in one form or another for the last 20 years, comes the latest vehicle in a long line of vehicles, attempting to boost Adam Driver’s career prospects, post The Last Jedi.
From producer Steven Soderbergh (the Ocean’s Films and Che) and starring John Hamm (Mad Men), Annette Bening (American Beauty and Captain Marvel), Michael C. Hall (Dexter and Six Feet Under) and Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Angel Has Fallen), The Report looks to be a revisitation of the politicization around the Abu Ghraib nonsense that was fully explored in other films between 2008 and 2014.
But, don’t take my word for it, check out the teaser trailer below:
I’m Rolling My Eyes…
This is clearly more Oscar bait, designed to get the left-wing, progressive crowd to associate the current occupant of the White House with cover-ups of dirty deeds, done dirt cheap, years ago.
The Report (or, as it’s known by its full name, The Torture Report), follows the twists and turns and “palace intrigue” of the… well… let’s let them tell it…
THE REPORT is a thriller based on actual events. Idealistic staffer Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver) is tasked by his boss Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) to lead an investigation of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program created in the aftermath of 9/11. Jones’ relentless pursuit of the truth leads to findings that uncover the lengths to which the nation’s top intelligence agency went to destroy evidence, subvert the law, and hide a shocking secret from the American public.
The Playbook Never Changes with These People…
The Report, written and directed by Scott Z. Burns (Side Effects, Contagion, and The Bourne Ultimatum) is following the same line of strained agitprop that Rendition, United 93, Fahrenheit 9/11, Zero Dark Thirty, and on, and on, and on followed that didn’t get audiences in the seats, but that ticked off all the right boxes.
The Report is designed as Oscar bait and the typical, progressive, film and culture outlets have given it the stamp of approval.
But, the quirk here is that Amazon Studios is distributing after purchasing it for $7 million at Sundance, which tells me that, against an $80 million dollar budget (allegedly), the audience tracking on this one has to be fairly low.
I expect it to open in the $10 -$15 million-dollar range in the theaters and then, once available for streaming, it will quietly go into the memory hole.
Watch The Report and get your mind right about the CIA, on November 15, 2019!
