Reality

Director: Tina Satter
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Marchánt Davis, Josh Hamilton, Benny Elledge, John Way
Running Time: 82 min.
Rating: TV-MA 

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

The arrest of U.S. Air Force vet and NSA contractor Reality Winner (yes, her real name) on charges of releasing classified intelligence information hasn't exactly aged well. Or more accurately, public reaction and media coverage of the circumstances haven't. She committed a crime that, if gone unpunished, could have set a dangerous precedent when it comes to leaking government secrets. But regardless of your opinion on the offense, her motivations are laid bare in Tina Satter's gripping, tension-filled Reality, which hones in on how the leak somehow created more hysteria than the actual information being withheld from the American people. And it does this by simply showing what happened.

Co-written and directed by Satter from her stage play, Is This A Room, it's based on the actual interrogation transcript from the day the FBI showed up at Winner's doorstep, leaving little doubt we're getting a fairly accurate, word-for-word account, pauses and redactions included. Taking place entirely at her house, the bare bones approach gives us a chance to listen to how real people talk, as the actors fill in the blanks, defined as much by the choices they don't make as the ones they do. What results is 82 minutes of pure suspense and a Sydney Sweeney performance that at this early stage of her career already feels like a big achievement.

On June 3, 2017 Reality Winner (Sweeney) returns home from grocery shopping to find FBI agents Taylor (Marchánt Davis) and Garrick (Josh Hamilton) in her driveway. There's some small talk with a cooperative Winner before backup arrive to search the house, making sure her pets are accounted for and safe. Settling on an empty, unused bedroom to question her, the two agents begin their formal interrogation.

The agents inquire about the specifics of Winner's office job as a government contracted Farsi translator, which she hopes will lead to a deployment to Afghanistan. After revealing they're investigating her role in the leak of classified documents to a media outlet, she denies the accusations. But over the course of the hour, they break her down, eventually getting to the bottom of what she did and why. By the end of the day, Winner will be in handcuffs, eventually sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison under the Espionage Act.     

Does Winner know why these agents are there? Which parts of her story are lies? At what point will they stop playing nice? Those are the major questions Satter's film introduces, while the accused remains respectful and obliging, desperately trying to keep her cool under pressure. You can tell she's terrified, and for good reason, as these agents already know what they're after, despite how polite or accommodating they appear to be. 

Since the dialogue is set in stone, the direction and performances are everything, tasked with bringing to life this recorded transcript. None of it is too static or stagey, with Satter (in her directorial debut) hanging on every word and tiny action. Whether it's an agent's seemingly innocuous conversation with Winner about her rescue dog or a sudden movement to unlock her phone, each moment feels important in a situation this dependent on reading people. 

Satter also uses every visual and narrative device at her disposal to heighten the drama, displaying the actual transcript on screen during conversations, playing the real recording, incorporating actual photos and footage of Winner, utilizing flashbacks and even cutting to black during redacted discussions. And then after teetering on the edge of our seats watching the process itself, we get the reveal.

When cornered into confessing she leaked a document from the NSA database regarding possible Russian interference in the 2016 election, a fuller picture comes into view of who Winner really is and what she stands for. A CrossFit instructor and avid power lifter in her spare time, she feels bombarded by FOX News at work, depressingly awaiting a deployment that might never come. Toiling away in a cubicle for a department that makes little use of her extensive lingual skills. she's grown sick of government lies, determined to follow through on her pledge to protect and serve at any cost. It's a defense that holds up better morally than legally, resulting in the predicament she now finds herself.     

Sweeney plays it perfectly, never pushing too hard in either direction when reacting to the chaos that descends upon Winner. Subtly giving off all the clues she has something to hide, the agents remain a few steps ahead, setting a mouse trap they're sure she'll eventually walk into. And she does. But what's most impressive about Sweeney's performance is how much she's able to convey with preciously little, making her end of the transcript dramatically soar for an hour and a half. No matter how small, each word and expression can be read as a sign that Winner knows the vice is tightening. By the end, she's rendered helpless. 

Not to be overlooked are the turns from Davis and Hamilton as Winner's opponents in an uneven battle of wills in a dirty, vacant room. If she understandably deteriorates under the pressure, these guys are on cruise control, remaining patient and precise throughout, tactically breaking down her barriers.  Harmlessly presenting themselves in khakis and collared shirts, the two actors expertly convey those intentions, making Sweeney's work that much better as the exhaustive grilling wears on. 

By leaking that to the media, Winner wasn't covered under the Whistleblower Protection Act, practically guaranteeing a jail sentence of some sort. The one that came down was stiff, even as we're left wondering about the absence of a lawyer or why she wasn't read her Miranda rights prior to questioning. Apparently, none of that made a difference in invalidating the confession or fighting a conviction.

This is a straightforward procedural, but in the best possible way. Not knowing what to make of Winner's thoughts and actions, it puts viewers in a position similar to the agents assigned to her. They realize how much pushing needs to be done, but when one of them remarks that she doesn't seem like the type to do this, you sense he means it. Reality gets to the how and why, while also reminding us that 2017 simultaneously feels like yesterday and centuries ago. Winner couldn't have known the eventual importance of her arrest, but given everything that's happened in the country since, it's easy to believe she'd do it all again in a heartbeat.