The Fifth Estate (2013)
Directed by Bill Condon
A look at the relationship between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his early supporter and eventual colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and how the website's growth and influence led to an irreparable rift between the two friends.
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Screenwriters Liz Hannah and Josh Singer (writer of a thread of screen stories about journalism such as “Spotlight,” “The Fifth Estate,” and “The West Wing”) use the cataclysmic event in American identity, the ‘Watergate’ period, as a lens to view the increasing volatility and hostility of our contemporary political climate and the propagandistic ‘fake news’ ethos that’s permeated the zeitgeist.
Working off a strong script by Liz Hannah (her first feature screenplay) and Josh Singer ( Spotlight , The Fifth Estate ), Spielberg offers a multilayered tale where not only The Washington Post rises to the occasion, but so does Kay Graham, finally claiming her rightful place at the top, in a nice feminist twist.
Director Bill Condon ("The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn") has successfully tackled the biopic before with his fantastical take on film director James Whale ("Gods and Monsters") and more pedestrian approach to sex researcher Alfred Kinsey ("Kinsey") (His 'Tilda,' reportedly a fictionalization of Deadline’s Nikki Finke for HBO, was never picked up).
PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments As written by "West Wing" veteran Josh Singer and directed by Condon, who took on a similar task with "Kinsey," "The Fifth Estate" does a solid job making audiences consider the pros and cons of issues involving governmental secrecy, complicity with power and the price of openness.
Directed by Bill Condon, who made his name in biopics (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey) before going old Broadway with Dreamgirls and young adult with the last two Twilight movies, The Fifth Estate crams a spanning-the-globe crash course in international politics into the crevices of a lopsided bromance.
Director Bill Condon is no stranger to the art of the biopic having written and directed two of the best, "Gods and Monsters" and "Kinsey," and considering the timeliness of "The Fifth Estate's" topical protagonist (of sorts), it's no surprise he might want to revisit that territory and even try to reinvent it somewhat for his first post-"Twilight" film.
This movie, from director Bill Condon (“Kinsey,” “Dreamgirls”), and based on Assange’s now-estranged former partner Daniel Berg (played in the film by “Rush’s” Daniel Brühl) at times feels as though it is un-digested and un-analyzed.