REALITY

One of the most rewarding elements of 'Reality' is seeing Sydney Sweeney finally get her star-making role. Having danced around the A-list with her TV roles in 'Euphoria' and 'The White Lotus', many will assume that her upcoming roles in Marvel's 'Madame Web' and the hotly-anticipated romcom 'Anyone But You' will cement her status. In fact, it's her stripped-down presence in 'Reality' that should be celebrated; make-up free and donning simple denim shorts and a white shirt, this is a far cry from the eye-candy roles we have seen Sweeney typically gravitate towards. Satter captures her in frequent close-ups, so audiences can study the micro expressions that give away the truth of Reality's circumstance. When Reality ultimately confesses – spoiler alert, but it's a well-documented real-life event – to leaking a classified report on Russia's interference with the 2016 U.S. election, it feels more like a sigh of relief that the other shoe has dropped rather than a huge revelation. This is because the conversation that eventually ruins Reality's life is played off so casually by everyone involved. The agents don't want to believe Reality has actually done what they are there to arrest her for, even in the face of damning evidence, and Reality doesn't want to face, well, the reality of what she has done. The big revelation comes in the reason behind her sedate reaction to the entire interrogation, and why it takes her so long to ask for a lawyer; Reality genuinely doesn't think she has done anything wrong. It's heartbreaking to see her loyalty to the American people – the entire drive for her passion for her job – be twisted into an act of perceived treason, and her faith in the state destroyed.

The transcript Satter uses had been declassified, however some parts of the transcript were kept redacted; this is shown on screen with Reality and the agents "glitching" out of frame and a tense sound effect behind it. It's a trick that runs old quickly; a far more effective way to approach this could have been a bleep à la 'Kill Bill: Volume 1' style. Additionally, once the recording of the interrogation begins, the sound design cleverly matches that of dialogue being taped, but this is dropped very early on. Keeping this sound design consistent through the film would have really mitigated the need for more superfluous methods of reminding us constantly that what we are watching unfold actually happened.

While some of its creative decisions feel out of step with the grounded nature of its stranger-than-fiction script, 'Reality' is a compelling bottle film that boasts a must-see Sydney Sweeney performance, and manages to find humanity even in the tensest of circumstances.