The Report
Directed by Scott Z. Burns
- drama
The story
The story of Daniel Jones, lead investigator for the US Senate’s sweeping study into the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, which was found to be brutal, immoral and ineffective. With the truth at stake, Jones battled tirelessly to make public what many in power sought to keep hidden.
What it’s like
Muted, fluorescent-lit rooms and long stretches of paper: the film lives in government offices, windowless archive basements and beige conference rooms, shot in a cool, desaturated palette that keeps a faint grey-green cast over everything. Its camera stays mostly still or drifts slowly, favouring over-the-shoulder shots across desks and stacks of redacted pages, with the occasional flashback cut into blown-out desert browns and harsh tungsten interrogation-site glare that feels like a jolt. Dialogue is quick and dry, and the score is sparse and tense, more pulse than melody. Pacing is steady and procedural, with a nervous build rather than action beats. Tonally it is cold, clinical and moralising, with a restrained anger under the surface. Intensity: there are repeated depictions of torture and waterboarding, rendered in brief but unsettling flashbacks, with no gore and little gratuitous violence, though the subject is grim and the dread is persistent. Suited to a focused evening rather than background viewing. For viewers who want political thrillers about institutional accountability, bureaucratic persistence and the cost of telling hard truths.
More films like The Report
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved The Report and we’ll explain which ones fit you.
