Written and directed by Scott Z. Burns
Starring the Amazing Adam Driver, an Awesome Annette Bening, and a boatload of other recognizable actors you love to see
Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes
MPAA rating: R for graphic depictions of violent torture

by Jaime Davis, The Fixer

“I hope you took your strong pills today.”

These are the warning words of Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) to her staffer Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver), on their way to battle against CIA brass. You see, Jones was tasked with investigating, objectively and without bias, the reported torture of hundreds of suspected terrorists in the wake of 9/11 at the hands of CIA operatives. On one hand it’s a complicated issue - the CIA was in a serious pressure cooker trying to get answers and protect the nation against additional attacks. Which begs the question: what wouldn’t the CIA do, if they thought it would produce anything of substance? Enter two “experienced” yahoos (read: potential psychopaths? I’m not kidding) parading their military experience and multiple degrees: psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. CIA bigwigs ushered in Mitchell and Jessen’s consulting firm to help save the day, with their claims of research trials and effectiveness, stating that enhanced interrogation techniques (EIT) like waterboarding, sleep deprivation, controlled fear, stress positions, and extreme confinement would help get the information they so desperately needed. We now know that EIT’s didn’t work then, and haven’t worked in any documented cases. The CIA, of course, is beyond hesitant to admit a fuck up, and that’s the bulk of what The Report is all about. It’s an immersive look at the multiple branches of US government and how they intricately work for or against each other. It’s also a look at how these same offices chew citizens up and spit them out: there are a few key moments in the film reminding our protagonist Jones to be careful - a quick and you’ll miss it blip about Zero Dark Thirty’s theatrical release and a mention (just a mere mention!) of the name Edward Snowden. It’s enough to keep him (almost) toeing the line.

Adam Driver plays Adam Driver playing a slowly deteriorating Jones - I don’t mean that as a slight against the actor, in fact I found his performance quite comforting. There’s something about Driver’s consistent demeanor that makes him remarkably likeable and watchable in the wide variety of roles he’s played so far in his career, most recognizably as the manic Adam on Girls to the storied, troubled love child of Han Solo and Princess Leia. The relatively amiable Driver ushers us along as he’s completely taken over, dragged down by the human rights violations outlined in the report The Report is based on. Ultimately, he and his skeleton team put together 6,700 pages of horrific documentation that the CIA didn’t want anyone to see. And most likely never will in all its non-redacted glory. Only a 525-page summary has since seen the light of day.

Scott Z. Burns, a frequent Soderbergh collaborator, has produced and written some compelling films with chilling contemporary themes: Side Effects, the forthcoming The Laundromat, The Informant!, and the scariest film of the last decade, Contagion (I’m not kidding). The child of two psychologists, Burns was inspired to write The Report after reading a Vanity Fair article profiling Mitchell and Jessen’s “weaponizing” of psychology and its subsequent aftermath. His feature-length directorial debut is capable and quite Soderbergh-ian in its stark, grey brand of truth-telling. However, the film’s non-linear timeline is complicated and at times convoluted - troublesome for the audience as it often requires a Herculean amount of attention just to remember all the names and facts and dates. But it’s worth it to keep up. The film is highly controlled, lensed impeccably well, the entire stellar cast on point (Jon Hamm, Corey Stoll, Maura Tierney, Tim Blake Nelson, Michael C. Hall., etc.). And let’s talk about Annette Bening as Dianne Feinstein! She’s a contemporary treasure, y’all. Bening’s portrayal of the prolific California senator is nuanced and quiet - she’s not trying to make some showy play as a current, real-life political figure. Like a “look what I can do, Academy!” I respect her for that.

What’s most interesting to me about The Report is perhaps what could have been explored more - the real villains of the whole thing. It’s not, as the film spends much time focusing on, the CIA or a divided Congress, though they play a role here. The real villains are a low-key Mitchell and Jessen, last seen in the film luxuriating in their gorgeously outfitted private jet. While the bulk of the film has the Senate and the CIA and the FBI wagging pointed fingers at each other, in real life, Mitchell and Jessen rode off into the sunset with $80 million in US taxpayer monies as payment from the CIA. I’m not kidding. They’ve been charged in civil suits but were eventually indemnified by the US government. Seems like a thing the US government would do.

The Report is a living history of recent history, and a reminder not to repeat these same mistakes. I’d like to be hopeful about it but [redacted].