ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

mikeyjroyals Shows real behind the scenes footage and is very suspenseful and enlightening

Cinefill1 -Citizenfour is a 2014 documentary film directed by Laura Poitras, concerning Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal. The film had its U.S. premiere on October 10, 2014 at the New York Film Festival and its UK premiere on October 17, 2014 at the BFI London Film Festival. The film features Glenn Greenwald and was co-produced by Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, and Dirk Wilutzky, with Steven Soderbergh and others serving as executive producers. Citizenfour won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Oscars.--Reception:-Citizenfour received widespread critical acclaim. It has a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 129 critics, with an average score of 8.3/10. Metacritic gave the film an 88 out of 100 based on a normalized rating of 38 reviews. -Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote "No amount of familiarity with whistleblower Edward Snowden and his shocking revelations of the U.S. government's wholesale spying on its own citizens can prepare one for the impact of Laura Poitras's extraordinary documentary Citizenfour... far from reconstructing or analyzing a fait accompli, the film tersely records the deed in real time, as Poitras and fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald meet Snowden over an eight-day period in a Hong Kong hotel room to plot how and when they will unleash the bombshell that shook the world. Adapting the cold language of data encryption to recount a dramatic saga of abuse of power and justified paranoia, Poitras brilliantly demonstrates that information is a weapon that cuts both ways." -Spencer Ackerman writes in The Guardian: "Citizenfour must have been a maddening documentary to film. Its subject is pervasive global surveillance, an enveloping digital act that spreads without visibility, so its scenes unfold in courtrooms, hearing chambers and hotels. Yet the virtuosity of Laura Poitras, its director and architect, makes its 114 minutes crackle with the nervous energy of revelation." -Time magazine rated the film #8 out of its top 10 movies of 2014 and called the film "This Halloween's Scariest Chiller". Vanity Fair rated it #4 out of its top 10 and Grantland rated it #3 of its top 10. Writing for the Chicago Tribune, former Defense Department intelligence analyst Alex Lyda penned a negative review, calling Snowden "more narcissist than patriot". David Edelstein reviewed the film mostly favorably, and jocularly advised viewers "don't buy your ticket online or with a credit card". -The film site Fandor has published an extensive survey of other articles and reviews about Citizenfour, updated through December 25, 2014. --Lawsuit:-In December 2014, retired naval officer and oil executive Horace Edwards of Kansas filed suit against the film's producers "on behalf of the American people" for aiding and abetting Snowden's leaks. The Hollywood Reporter provided some legal analysis, noting observers opining that Edwards may not have legal standing to pursue the lawsuit. Edwards also challenged the film's Oscar eligibility on the grounds that Poitras' 2013 short film showing Greenwald interviewing Snowden constituted a previous release of Citizenfour, rendering it ineligible under Oscar rules. The Academy rejected the claim, noting that "the Guardian interview appears in less than two minutes of the documentary", and ruled that Citizenfour was eligible for Oscar consideration. -In February 2015, the filmmakers asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to dismiss the lawsuit on standing and jurisdictional grounds, and on First Amendment grounds citing Bartnicki v. Vopper. The plaintiff officially dropped the case on April 3, 2015.

lasttimeisaw The timing couldn't be more appropriate to watch this Oscar-winning fact-based documentary about the exclusive coverage of the man behind "PRISM Door", Edward Snowden and the repercussions afterwards, simply because under the present background of rampant terrorist attacks globally, whether or not each individual's privacy can be collectively sacrificed in exchange for a possible safeguard of personal safety?It is really self-evident to see the controversy of the situation, the bare bones of the debate is principle Vs. exigency, which is all based on one presumption that we permit our governments to put surveillance on our daily activities of all the citizens, then all the terrorism can be maximally forestalled. If it is the case, how many of us is willing to do so, to forswear the civil liberty? There is a big question mark for this, since it is glaringly against the canon of democracy where all the Western countries are built upon. If we allow that to happen, it will become a huge setback in human history, more pointedly, surveillance may not be a fail-safe manoeuvre to counter terrorism at all, while its collateral damage would include many unimaginable infringements of each individual's personal interests, if all the data can be easily at a wrongdoer's disposal.So, that's why we should stand on the same page with director Laura Poitras and her allies in the film, particularly at a time when the dark cloud of probable danger is hovering above everyone's head, we cannot lose our ground of the nitty-gritty. Largely intriguing human's innate proclivity of inquisitiveness, CITIZENFOUR cunningly proffers the first-hand exposé of Snowden when he hid in Hong Kong and contacted with journalist Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian reporter Ewen MacAskill to go through the scandalous disclosure, meanwhile simultaneously a camera is recording by Poitras on the spot. Now, since all the sensational hullabaloo has dissipated, one can be in a more poised state to watch this film, not just the big picture, we can get a preview of what's inside a man like Snowden, his entire process of "coming out". Poitras selectively and disinterestedly lays out a quite frank introduction of him, what he did is indisputably courageous, but also, as a whistle-blower, he is not "the chosen one", if it were not him, as a matter of time, sooner or later there would be another conscience-aware insider to speak out, the scheme of NSA (USA National Security Agency) is simply too massive to cover, thus more crucially, we should turn our target to them and fish out how that plan can be engineered through all the bureaucracy, yet, this is far from a perfect world, at least for now, the answer is moot.After Snowden left Hong Kong, Poitras' camera can no longer focus on him but on Greenwald and others, whom she has approach to film, what happens doesn't register the same intensity, since anyone who has a healthy common-sense knows which side we should lean on. There is a final reel of watching Snowden's life with his girlfriend in Moscow, no close-up, but medium-shot, soon the film also brings down its curtain, savours of a tad dissatisfaction.As one interviewee mentions, Snowden's whole adventure sounds like a John le Carré novel, so surreal but it is indeed a cast-iron fact, Poitras' documentary serves best as an awareness- agitating gateway to invite us to inspect our own government and resist the temptation of a pipe dream - there is no deus ex machina in solving a deep-rooted social problem. With regard to cinephiles, this film might as well serve as an inviting amuse-gueule for the upcoming Oliver Stone's adaptation, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, let's wish it will be at least remotely le Carré- esque in light of Stone's recent patchy productions.

eddie_baggins Winner of this year's Best Documentary feature at the Academy Awards, Citizenfour is an insightful and rare glimpse into the politically charged revelations of former NSA sub-contractor Edward Snowden that has seen him become a Julian Assange like figure of the modern world and one of the wanted men on America's most hated list.Before Oliver Stone's high profile Joseph Gordon Levitt retelling of the Snowden story hits our screens sometime next year, Citizenfour offers us the best chance to get to know Snowden the "person" not the news headline and also get background as to why this clearly smart and sophisticated young man choose to unleash the National Security Agency's real dealings to the world through his touch base with the Guardian newspaper and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.Citizenfour (Snowden's code name in email contact with reporters and filmmakers) is not a documentary worth seeing for any other reason other than the fact it's an incredibly intimate and unflattering look at the week in the life of Snowden when the news was being prepped for the world at just what was going on behind closed doors. Snowden allowed filmmaker Poitras access to his hotel room as he carried out meetings with the Guardian's reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill and while watching we feel like a fly on the wall as this world changing news is gathered and the dots are joined together. In these close-nit meetings Snowden comes across as a likable and thoughtful persona that cares not for his own goals, rather the lives of his fellow citizens both at home and abroad.Snowden's recollections of what lay at the fingertips of the NSA are both revealing and frightening and he displays a clear understanding of just why this information can't be left behind closed doors. After watching Snowden talk, you'll be hard pressed to look at your phone or computer in the same way as before.With Steven Soderbergh's presence here as a producer, Citizenfour has a polished feel but really as a film making piece there's nothing to ride home about here and the true star of the show is Snowden himself. Perhaps a slightly strange choice for a Best Documentary win at the Oscars considering the film mainly consists of a camera planted solely around Snowden, Citzenfour is none the less an intriguing and honest look into one of the modern eras most explosive information leaks.3 ½ tension riddled fire alarm tests out of 5