There’s no doubting for a moment of Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’ that the filmmaker is a staunch fan of the whistleblower. A love letter fueled by a rah-rah liberal patriotism for the former CIA and NSA contractor’s achievements, Stone’s solemn biopic isn’t necessarily a film about Edward Snowden, but for Edward Snowden.
In some ways, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a higher-end version of James Franco but occasionally you have to wonder if we’ve allowed him to take himself a little too seriously. Take the latest trailer for Oliver Stone’s Snowden, for instance, which A.) Reminds you that this is a movie that is still coming out soon, and B.) Features one of the most baffling prestige-acting accents in recent memory.
The first Divergent movie did OK in theaters, owing much of its success to the YA post-apocalyptic craze and the popularity of stars Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller. But the subsequent installments saw diminishing returns, with the third film, Allegiant, taking a major hit at the box office — possibly because audiences had YA fatigue, or maybe because the story just wasn’t that compelling. Whatever the case may be, the final Divergent film will skip past theaters and head direct-to-television, with plans to launch a spinoff series.