Yahoo Movies The Report could turn the tide for Amazon Prime's exclusive content
The Report is Amazon's latest venture into the cinematic ring that has so far been led almost exclusively by Netflix. Unfortunately, so far it hasn't gone well for Amazon Prime.
Amazon Studios' highest-profile buy, Sundance's Late Night starring Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson was a box-office flop. Other releases which lost Amazon money included Suspiria, You Were Never Really Here and Beautiful Boy.
But The Report, which cost Amazon Studios $14 million for global distribution rights, could change all that – if quality were any guarantee of success. The movie is out in UK cinemas now, but drops on Amazon in two weeks.
It stars Adam Driver (Star Wars) as FBI agent Daniel Jones, who performs an exhaustive investigation into the CIA's use of torture on suspected terrorists at 'black sites' like Guantanamo Bay.
Adam Driver gives a magnetic performance, slowly drawing the audience in as he uncovers the truth and fights to see it brought to light. He is joined by a worthy ensemble cast who range from the outright evil to the morally grey to the idealistically reckless.
It is the performances of this cast, in particular, Annette Bening, Michael C Hall, Jon Hamm, Maura Tierney (The Affair), and Douglas Hodge, that keeps the film interesting. Though the conflict of the movie is enhanced interrogation techniques, the movie is actually about, well, the report.
And the report itself is complicated, dry, long, and arduous. This is why it takes such a toll on those compiling it, particularly Daniel. But on its own, it does not for exciting movie-watching make. It's a 6,700-page report, after all.
To get around this, the movie takes us to the black sites, into the cells with the detainees. It chains us up to the floor, naked, with death metal blasting at an unbearable volume before being waterboarded. It's only a taste of what the actual prisoners went through.
And it's almost unwatchable. What it does do, however, is make the righteous indignation that Daniel carries with him throughout the film feel all the more visceral to the audience. Without these scenes – hard to watch though they may be – the movie wouldn't feel so immediate.
Because The Report deals with very complicated government files over a prolonged period, it's hard to follow all the granular details. They're explained to us via Bening's Senator Dianne Feinstein, who frequently asks Dan "What does this mean?" or "Explain why this matters?" as a mouthpiece for the audience who may have lost the thread ten minutes previously.
Luckily it's easy enough to pick the thread back up. Driver's nuanced and impassioned performance taps into the outrage and empathy one would feel in the face of such outrageous harm. This is the thread that connects the movie, not when and where someone was, or in what order the CIA gained information.
Anyone vaguely interested in politics will be fascinated to learn just how insidious and connected the web of cover-up and wilful ignorance was. Anyone not interested in politics will still be shocked by it because, though the film is undeniably political, it is also non-partisan. No one comes out of The Report totally clean.
So yes, The Report is certainly worth your time: for its remarkable performances, particularly from Driver, but also for the accuracy and unflinching honesty with which it looks at the past. Because without understanding the past, we're liable to repeat it.
The Report is in UK cinemas now, and available to watch on Amazon Prime from November 29.
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