THE REPORT
Adam Driver stars in this scathing political drama as the Senate staffer charged with investigating the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation” in the wake of 9/11.
Even the most ardent news junkie will discover something new to be infuriated about in screenwriter-turned-director Scott Z. Burns’s riveting dissection of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s five-year investigation into the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. In yet another stellar performance, Driver portrays Daniel Jones, who, while working for Senator Dianne Feinstein (a pitch-perfect Annette Benning) is tasked with plumbing the depths of the CIA’s use of brutal torture techniques on over 100 prisoners. As weeks become months and months years, Daniel keeps digging, sifting through millions of documents and reports, speaking on and off the record to anyone who could help his quest to get to the truth. Classic 1970s cinema like All the President’s Men is an obvious touchstone here, as is the edgier work of Steven Soderbergh, a filmmaker Burns has collaborated with several times. In the end, however, Burns finds his greatest inspiration in, simply, the truth. Without needless adornment or theatrics, Burns examines this raw and ugly moment in all-too-recent history. His film, like Daniel’s original 7,000-page report, allows the facts to powerfully speak for themselves—a damning record of one of America’s darkest moments.
CAST: ADAM DRIVER, ANNETTE BENING, JON HAMM, TED LEVINE
In Competition: First Feature Award
All sales are final. Admission is not guaranteed after scheduled start time.
CLICK HERE to return to the complete 28th Philadelphia Film Festival schedule.