Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 4 September

Reality (Satter, 2023)

This time last year Sydney Sweeney was best known for two television series that I hadn’t seen: Euphoria and The White Lotus. So, when Reality turned up in the festival, I didn’t know who she was and presumed that she was another one of those prodigiously talented young indie actors who elevated everything she was involved with but didn’t predict that she would become one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.

Over the summer, her rom-com collaboration with Glen Powell, Anyone But You became a break-out hit a couple of months later her producer-actor turn as a haunted nun in Immaculate also blew me away.

This verbatim role as a whistleblower under pressure from government investigators is her at her ‘realist’ so far. It’s a fantastic performance and a gripping little film.

When the original material is inherently dramatic and the shaping is brilliantly deft you get Reality, based on Tina Satter’s own stage play Is This a Room.

With the only dialogue in the piece taken verbatim from the original transcribed recordings, Reality recreates the day in June 2017 when national security translator – and former Air Force senior airman – Reality Winner is raided by the FBI and interrogated at her home about the ‘mishandling’ of some documents.

What starts out as a ‘whatwasdoneit’ (if that’s a word) over time becomes a ‘whodunnit’ and then eventually a ‘whydunnit’ as the agents slowly reveal how much they already know and Winner crumbles under the pressure.

An insight into interrogation techniques – in this case quietly methodical, on the surface respectful, constantly asking if she needs water or wants to sit down, the welfare of her pets, etc – viewers will wonder why Winner never stops to ask for a lawyer. It’s clear that she still sees herself as a patriot and wants to help, at least that is until the net closes too tight.

Gripping from whoah to go, largely as a result of lead actor Sydney Sweeney, by the end you ought to be as outraged as Winner was about what she was seeing from her government – and about how she was treated by it as a result.

Also among those NZIFF 2023 capsules, Saint Omer and the documentary Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams.

Reality is not to be confused with Matteo Garrone’s 2013 satire of the same name.

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Where to watch Reality

Aotearoa: Streaming on Neon

Australia: Streaming on Binge

Canada: Not currently available

Ireland and UK: Streaming on Prime Video

USA: Streaming on Max

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RNZ website update

This week RNZ has taken another step to improving their digital and online audio experience with a new website player and changes to navigation and an improved podcasts page.

I was a little concerned that my old content from Widescreen and Rancho Notorious might have disappeared in the change as we never fitted into any of the RNZ content paradigms at the time (and still don’t, to be honest).

Widescreen – nearly ten years of written articles and reviews as well as our early attempts at video – is available under the Series tab. And Rancho Notorious can be found through the search function. I’ll see if I can create a tag for all the Rancho Notorious content that will provide a permanent URL for this shows. They were fun.