June 7, 2023 • 9 mins
An experimental 80 minute slow motion panic attack, HBO's new film Reality recreates a transcript of FBI agents interrogating and searching the home of Reality Winner (that's her real name) that would later be charged with violation of the Espionage Act. Syndey Sweeney really delivers a captivating performance in a film that is almost 100% reliant on her to function. What's really surprising is that the film is shot through with this bizarre, creeping Ari Aster style dread that elevates it beyond a simple docudrama. What did you think of Reality?
Trying to figure out, "What should I stream tonight?" Come back to Watch This Tonight as your podcast for the best TV recommendations for what to watch on streaming platforms. Please leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts if you're enjoying the show, and mention a movie or TV show you want me to cover (and I will). Subscribe for future episodes.
Reach out to us @BenamorDan (Twitter), watch_this_tonight (Instagram) or @watchthistonightpodcast (TikTok).
Watch This Tonight is a movie recommendation podcast and TV recommendation podcast, produced by Voyage Media. You can find other Voyage Media podcasts at voyagemedia.fm
Thanks for listening.
Trying to figure out, "What should I stream tonight?" Come back to Watch This Tonight as your podcast for the best TV recommendations for what to watch on streaming platforms. Please leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts if you're enjoying the show, and mention a movie or TV show you want me to cover (and I will). Subscribe for future episodes.
Reach out to us @BenamorDan (Twitter), watch_this_tonight (Instagram) or @watchthistonightpodcast (TikTok).
Watch This Tonight is a movie recommendation podcast and TV recommendation podcast, produced by Voyage Media. You can find other Voyage Media podcasts at voyagemedia.fm
Thanks for listening.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Voyage. Welcome to watch this tonight. I'm your host, Dan Bettimore.
(00:22):
I'm a producer, writer of filmand television and now a podcast producer.
And despite having every streaming service,I never know what to watch. So
anytime I watch something good, Italk about it on the show. This
way, you'll never have the sameproblem I do. I watched this tonight.
There's always something good to watch.Let's get started. Today on the
show, we were talking about Reality, which is a new HBO original movie.
(00:44):
I refuse to call it Max.This is based they may go to
great pains to let you know.It's based on a transcript of an audio
recording of the interrogation and arrest ofa woman who was ultimately charged with like
violation. The espionage Actors like Thatstars Sidney Sweeney from Euphoria. The headline
is this is an eighty minute experimentand as that it works pretty well.
(01:10):
And I think in large part that'sdue to the execution. Really good acting,
really well directed, and you know, sometimes life conspires to create a
scenario that is a natural thing fordrama. So this is a good one
to sort of you know, ifyou got eighty minutes, you want to
try something a little bit unique tokind of take a flyer on. If
(01:30):
this had been even two hours,it absolutely would not have worked. But
they were smart about the running time, and I think that's a big part
of why it works. And thenit's an incredible showcase for Cydny Sweeney,
who I never watched Euphoria. Ihave no knowledge of what's going on with
her and all that. Obviously,I know it has really launched her as
a star and all that, butthis is almost like an eighty minute audition
(01:57):
for her to know that she coulddo anything, and you could put her
in an Ariaster movie, like shecould have started Midsomar after you watch this,
and actually, in a weird way, this feels kind of like an
Ariaster movie at times. There's aweird creepy feeling to it that sort of
escalates as it goes along. Butbasically the setup is, you know,
you see Sydney Sweeney. She comeshome and there's a couple of guys outside
(02:23):
her house and they show their badgesand they're with the FBI, and then
it's just all kind of creeping dread. This is like an eighty minute panic
attack in slow motion. They're sortof making small talk with her and what's
great about it and why it works, and it must have been true with
just the transcript, and it wouldit makes sense. They don't want to
like alarm her. So it's verymuch the frog and the boiling pot of
(02:46):
water. Right they're there, they'relike, hey, you know, like
they're so nice. The fact thatthey're so nice it almost makes it creepier.
And if you don't have if youhaven't like looked it up beforehand,
which I suggest not doing acts,just going in blind. You know,
you know that she's in trouble,but you don't know exactly the specifics,
and so they're kind of making smalltalk and then you know, it just
(03:08):
gradually gets ratcheted up. So ata certain point they're like, hey,
do you have any guns in thehouse, And you know, you almost
expect her to be like no,no, and she's like yep, and
they're like, well, what doyou got? And I was like,
well, I got a pink Rfifteen, I got a I think she's
a fifteen gage and then a glocknine and she sorted. So it's like
(03:29):
oh okay, and then it justkeeps ratcheting and ratcheting and ratcheting. It's
like a docu drama, Like it'svery much something that like David Simon could
have made this, but the waythat it's directed has that ariaster creepiness.
And I have an example of this. There's a part of this movie that
I think I either I laughed andexclaimed and it was really like a horror
(03:52):
movie moment they established that there's atoy truck across the street with a little
Confederate flag on it and it's empty, it's sitting there across street. But
then they cut back to it andthere's like a creepy cat sitting in the
trunk looking at her, and itwas like a hard movie jump scares ou.
So it does. It has thisweird tone to it that you would
(04:14):
not expect that I think works reallywell. And again it's it's it would
be mundane if you didn't know that. The subtext of all the small talk
with the FBI agents is that theyare about to nail her to the wall.
I mean, it's going to endbadly. So that's the tension and
subtext. As they're making small talkabout like yoga and CrossFit, and you're
like, you know, they're searchingher house. There's a little moment where
(04:38):
they leave her door open and shelike runs over to close it because she
just want her cat to escape.Was very relatable to me. I have
two cats and we constantly do that. Um and but they but it's like
a little moment of tension where theylike, you know, they think she's
she's doing something else and the FBIguys are there and all that, um,
they do it the pet part ofthis. They do a really good
job of humanizing her because you know, she's got to take her dog out,
(05:01):
put her dog in the in alittle sort of cage in the back
or on the side of the house, and then she's worried about the cat.
They put a leash on the cat. She's very concerned about her pets,
and that really makes you feel forher and also think about just like
the logical things that would happen,Like if the FBI shows up at my
house today and they're like, we'reshutting down watch this tonight, you know
(05:26):
they there would be like practical thingsthat would be an issue, right,
It'd be like, you know,like who's gonna pick up my kids from
daycare and stuff like that, andso you know, seeing her worry about
that stuff again like really humanizes heras a character. So you get invested
in her story and you feel badfor her as they keep asking her questions
(05:49):
and her responses keep getting more andmore bad, you know. So first
they're like, hey, you know, you wouldn't have taken out any sensitive
documents and she's like, oh,well there was one time, but it
was misunderstanding. You're like, oh, okay, And then they keep asking,
keep asking, keep asking, andeventually she denies something and they're just
(06:09):
like, we know you did,and she just has to sort of give
up the ghosts. And there's areal transition where it's like it seems like
she's gonna maybe just play innocent,and like forty five minutes into it,
it kind of turns and we juststart going down the rabbit hole into her
psyche and understanding her and her motivations. And it's a very kind of claustrophobic
(06:31):
movie. It's interesting. There's alittle part in it where she mentions that
her dog was like abused and doesn'tlike men, And after she says that,
you become very aware of the factthat it's like all male FBI agents
sort of surrounding her, and eventuallythere's a female FBI agent who does like
a pat down on her at theend. But yeah, it was fascinating.
(06:55):
I thought that it was really anincredible showcase for acting, because I'm
sure in real life this was tense, but not like so beautifully performed.
The guys who played the two FBIagents who interrogate her the whole time are
excellent. There's this one guy whothinks glasses and he's wearing like a tucked
in button down and he totally seemslike he's so polite. But at the
(07:17):
same time, if you were totell it, like if this was a
fictional story and it ended with thereveal that this guy's like a serial killer,
I would I would have bought it. I would have been like,
makes sense at that tracks for me. So they just do a great job
of creating this atmosphere of dread,and it's incredible they're able to sustain it.
Again, it's you know, theywere smart about the running time,
(07:39):
but it does. There's only afew actors that can hold up under this
kind of thing. You know.You think back to Ryan Reynolds, to
the movie where he's buried in aCoffin buried Colin Farrell phone booth. You
know this play is like that.It's just very moment to moment and you're
really wrapped up in the tension ofit and it has to be short,
(08:01):
which it is, And it wasjust really interesting and they do a great
job of Also, you know,when there's something that's redacted, they actually
the people blink out of existence.They do a bunch of little touches to
just keep reminding you, like,this is real. It's all real.
Here's a shot of the transcript wherethey said this, it's like watching a
documentary acted out by actors, butnot in like the cheesy way of like
(08:24):
a docu drama. Like it's justbeautifully acted. So is it a movie
that I will revisit a bunch oftimes? Definitely not. Is it a
cool movie to kind of take flyeron and have a different kind of experience?
I think so. I thought itwas really interesting and I'm glad it
exists. I think it's a worthyfilm and worth checking out. And that
is on HBO, which, bythe way, I think part of the
(08:45):
reason I end up watching that isbecause I'm sad that there's no more succession
in Barry. So if you knowwhat else to watch on HBO, I'm
probably not going to watch The Idol. Let's be honest. That's first of
all, obviously it's gotten a lotof bad buzz, but also a tough
watch for the two year old.What should we watch next? On HBO?
It almost feels like the rebranding toMax. It feels like this potentially
sad watershed moment where now when yougo on HBO, it's like, oh,
(09:09):
did you like this movie for exampleReality, Well then you might also
like like Chip and Joanna Gaines fixup a kitchen, So you know they're
They're a really interesting moment as abrand, and I'm very curious where they're
going to go from here. Butthis movie was interesting and good and I
think you shoul check it out.That is the podcast for today. As
(09:30):
always, thank you for listening.Until next time, Bye,
Voyage. Welcome to watch this tonight. I'm your host, Dan Bettimore.
(00:22):
I'm a producer, writer of filmand television and now a podcast producer.
And despite having every streaming service,I never know what to watch. So
anytime I watch something good, Italk about it on the show. This
way, you'll never have the sameproblem I do. I watched this tonight.
There's always something good to watch.Let's get started. Today on the
show, we were talking about Reality, which is a new HBO original movie.
(00:44):
I refuse to call it Max.This is based they may go to
great pains to let you know.It's based on a transcript of an audio
recording of the interrogation and arrest ofa woman who was ultimately charged with like
violation. The espionage Actors like Thatstars Sidney Sweeney from Euphoria. The headline
is this is an eighty minute experimentand as that it works pretty well.
(01:10):
And I think in large part that'sdue to the execution. Really good acting,
really well directed, and you know, sometimes life conspires to create a
scenario that is a natural thing fordrama. So this is a good one
to sort of you know, ifyou got eighty minutes, you want to
try something a little bit unique tokind of take a flyer on. If
(01:30):
this had been even two hours,it absolutely would not have worked. But
they were smart about the running time, and I think that's a big part
of why it works. And thenit's an incredible showcase for Cydny Sweeney,
who I never watched Euphoria. Ihave no knowledge of what's going on with
her and all that. Obviously,I know it has really launched her as
a star and all that, butthis is almost like an eighty minute audition
(01:57):
for her to know that she coulddo anything, and you could put her
in an Ariaster movie, like shecould have started Midsomar after you watch this,
and actually, in a weird way, this feels kind of like an
Ariaster movie at times. There's aweird creepy feeling to it that sort of
escalates as it goes along. Butbasically the setup is, you know,
you see Sydney Sweeney. She comeshome and there's a couple of guys outside
(02:23):
her house and they show their badgesand they're with the FBI, and then
it's just all kind of creeping dread. This is like an eighty minute panic
attack in slow motion. They're sortof making small talk with her and what's
great about it and why it works, and it must have been true with
just the transcript, and it wouldit makes sense. They don't want to
like alarm her. So it's verymuch the frog and the boiling pot of
(02:46):
water. Right they're there, they'relike, hey, you know, like
they're so nice. The fact thatthey're so nice it almost makes it creepier.
And if you don't have if youhaven't like looked it up beforehand,
which I suggest not doing acts,just going in blind. You know,
you know that she's in trouble,but you don't know exactly the specifics,
and so they're kind of making smalltalk and then you know, it just
(03:08):
gradually gets ratcheted up. So ata certain point they're like, hey,
do you have any guns in thehouse, And you know, you almost
expect her to be like no,no, and she's like yep, and
they're like, well, what doyou got? And I was like,
well, I got a pink Rfifteen, I got a I think she's
a fifteen gage and then a glocknine and she sorted. So it's like
(03:29):
oh okay, and then it justkeeps ratcheting and ratcheting and ratcheting. It's
like a docu drama, Like it'svery much something that like David Simon could
have made this, but the waythat it's directed has that ariaster creepiness.
And I have an example of this. There's a part of this movie that
I think I either I laughed andexclaimed and it was really like a horror
(03:52):
movie moment they established that there's atoy truck across the street with a little
Confederate flag on it and it's empty, it's sitting there across street. But
then they cut back to it andthere's like a creepy cat sitting in the
trunk looking at her, and itwas like a hard movie jump scares ou.
So it does. It has thisweird tone to it that you would
(04:14):
not expect that I think works reallywell. And again it's it's it would
be mundane if you didn't know that. The subtext of all the small talk
with the FBI agents is that theyare about to nail her to the wall.
I mean, it's going to endbadly. So that's the tension and
subtext. As they're making small talkabout like yoga and CrossFit, and you're
like, you know, they're searchingher house. There's a little moment where
(04:38):
they leave her door open and shelike runs over to close it because she
just want her cat to escape.Was very relatable to me. I have
two cats and we constantly do that. Um and but they but it's like
a little moment of tension where theylike, you know, they think she's
she's doing something else and the FBIguys are there and all that, um,
they do it the pet part ofthis. They do a really good
job of humanizing her because you know, she's got to take her dog out,
(05:01):
put her dog in the in alittle sort of cage in the back
or on the side of the house, and then she's worried about the cat.
They put a leash on the cat. She's very concerned about her pets,
and that really makes you feel forher and also think about just like
the logical things that would happen,Like if the FBI shows up at my
house today and they're like, we'reshutting down watch this tonight, you know
(05:26):
they there would be like practical thingsthat would be an issue, right,
It'd be like, you know,like who's gonna pick up my kids from
daycare and stuff like that, andso you know, seeing her worry about
that stuff again like really humanizes heras a character. So you get invested
in her story and you feel badfor her as they keep asking her questions
(05:49):
and her responses keep getting more andmore bad, you know. So first
they're like, hey, you know, you wouldn't have taken out any sensitive
documents and she's like, oh,well there was one time, but it
was misunderstanding. You're like, oh, okay, And then they keep asking,
keep asking, keep asking, andeventually she denies something and they're just
(06:09):
like, we know you did,and she just has to sort of give
up the ghosts. And there's areal transition where it's like it seems like
she's gonna maybe just play innocent,and like forty five minutes into it,
it kind of turns and we juststart going down the rabbit hole into her
psyche and understanding her and her motivations. And it's a very kind of claustrophobic
(06:31):
movie. It's interesting. There's alittle part in it where she mentions that
her dog was like abused and doesn'tlike men, And after she says that,
you become very aware of the factthat it's like all male FBI agents
sort of surrounding her, and eventuallythere's a female FBI agent who does like
a pat down on her at theend. But yeah, it was fascinating.
(06:55):
I thought that it was really anincredible showcase for acting, because I'm
sure in real life this was tense, but not like so beautifully performed.
The guys who played the two FBIagents who interrogate her the whole time are
excellent. There's this one guy whothinks glasses and he's wearing like a tucked
in button down and he totally seemslike he's so polite. But at the
(07:17):
same time, if you were totell it, like if this was a
fictional story and it ended with thereveal that this guy's like a serial killer,
I would I would have bought it. I would have been like,
makes sense at that tracks for me. So they just do a great job
of creating this atmosphere of dread,and it's incredible they're able to sustain it.
Again, it's you know, theywere smart about the running time,
(07:39):
but it does. There's only afew actors that can hold up under this
kind of thing. You know.You think back to Ryan Reynolds, to
the movie where he's buried in aCoffin buried Colin Farrell phone booth. You
know this play is like that.It's just very moment to moment and you're
really wrapped up in the tension ofit and it has to be short,
(08:01):
which it is, And it wasjust really interesting and they do a great
job of Also, you know,when there's something that's redacted, they actually
the people blink out of existence.They do a bunch of little touches to
just keep reminding you, like,this is real. It's all real.
Here's a shot of the transcript wherethey said this, it's like watching a
documentary acted out by actors, butnot in like the cheesy way of like
(08:24):
a docu drama. Like it's justbeautifully acted. So is it a movie
that I will revisit a bunch oftimes? Definitely not. Is it a
cool movie to kind of take flyeron and have a different kind of experience?
I think so. I thought itwas really interesting and I'm glad it
exists. I think it's a worthyfilm and worth checking out. And that
is on HBO, which, bythe way, I think part of the
(08:45):
reason I end up watching that isbecause I'm sad that there's no more succession
in Barry. So if you knowwhat else to watch on HBO, I'm
probably not going to watch The Idol. Let's be honest. That's first of
all, obviously it's gotten a lotof bad buzz, but also a tough
watch for the two year old.What should we watch next? On HBO?
It almost feels like the rebranding toMax. It feels like this potentially
sad watershed moment where now when yougo on HBO, it's like, oh,
(09:09):
did you like this movie for exampleReality, Well then you might also
like like Chip and Joanna Gaines fixup a kitchen, So you know they're
They're a really interesting moment as abrand, and I'm very curious where they're
going to go from here. Butthis movie was interesting and good and I
think you shoul check it out.That is the podcast for today. As
(09:30):
always, thank you for listening.Until next time, Bye,
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