In his heyday, there was nobody better at telling incendiary tales rooted in fact and reality than Oliver Stone, even if he hardly kept his personal opinions on the sidelines. Not that film fans were complaining when it gifted them with the likes of Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, and Nixon, but those days have long since passed.
In fact, it’s been six years since Stone directed anything, with Snowden marking the latest disappointing effort from the once-mighty three-time Academy Award winner, who arguably hasn’t come close to recapturing his mojo at any point since the turn of the 21st Century.
If that scans as harsh, then you have to remember that while his biographical political thriller drew decent reviews from critics, almost all of them lamented and questioned why Stone would play things so safe. Snowden is a perfectly functional and serviceable mid budget studio thriller, but it’s lacking in any real bite.
Despite bombing at the box office after failing to recoup its $40 million budget, the deep dive into the titular figure’s leak of classified documents has nonetheless been enjoying a renewed lease of life on streaming. Per FlixPatrol, Paramount Plus subscribers have readily been revisiting or discovering Snowden, and they appear to like what they’ve found, seeing as the twisting tale has been on the up and up in multiple countries dotted around the globe.
We’re about due a new Oliver Stone joint, so let’s hope it finds him back on top form after a sustained period that’s done nothing but underwhelm.