Reality – Film Review
Review by Frank L

Director – Tina Satter
Writers – Tina Satter, James Paul Dallas
Stars – Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis

This is a screen adaptation by Satter of her 2019 stage play “Is This a Room?”. The play concerns the interrogation of Reality Winner (yes, her real name), an employee of the National Security Agency, in relation to the printing and disclosing of a security document concerning the 2016 presidential election in the United States. What Satter uses as a script is the transcript of the recorded interrogation of Winner (Sydney Sweeney) by two FBI agents Taylor (Marchant Davis) and Garrick (Josh Hamilton). The two officers recorded the conversation from the moment Reality returned, in her car, to her house in Agusta, Georgia having done some shopping. The recording begins with them tapping on the window of the car.

It is initially a low-key encounter. Reality seems uncomfortable but not unduly surprised by the appearance of the officers. She appears more concerned about her pets, a cat and a dog, than her own security. The two officers repeatedly reassure Reality that they are engaging with her on a voluntary basis, no doubt a phrase taken from their handbook, but they also have a search warrant. Other officers are cordoning off her house with tapes before entering the house. There are questions about whether there are any guns in the house. Notwithstanding the oft-repeated comment that she is answering the questions on a voluntary basis, she is alone in her house in a room which is almost bare. The emptiness of the room adds to her vulnerability.

Sweeney gives a fine performance of a woman keeping her cool when under pressure. She does not know what the officers know. She is initially cagey in her answers but they know what they are doing.  An interesting detail is the close-up of a snail which is on a window sill which protrudes its horns from its shell only to retract them again. A fine metaphor for opening and closing down in an interrogation. Hamilton is clinical in his questioning. His voice is unwavering and restrained but he manages to be gently menacing at the same time. Davis reinforces Hamilton as he probes into Reality’s answers. They are a seasoned pair of interrogators and they know how to act in unison.

The entire film is an unsettling insight into an interrogation by the FBI. Also disturbing is an opening scene of Reality working at her desk in an open plan office in the NSA, where playing on large screens, just audible, was Fox News.

This is an imaginatively conceived re-enactment of an interrogation using the actual transcript. Because of the authenticity of the text and the complementary performances of the three actors, this is a fascinating film. But it is also disturbing as it highlights the disparity in power between the interrogators and their subject.  Satter has crafted an invaluable insight into how law enforcement operates in the USA in relation to national security. That is a public service of magnitude and it makes for a fascinating film.