Another Review of "Citizenfour." Are you planning on seeing it?

I’m not a fan of Snowden or Greenwald, to put it mildly, however I thought I’d post Kenneth Turan’s review as I think he’s one of the better critics around. I live in a mostly conservative area of SoCal and doubt it will even play here. The review is from today's LA Times, 10/24/14.
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Be afraid. Be very afraid.

This in essence is the message of "Citizenfour," Laura Poitras' highly anticipated documentary on Edward Snowden's decision to expose the National Security Agency's ravenous appetite for clandestinely collecting the personal data of ordinary citizens. If left unchecked, the film persuasively posits, this lust for information on an unprecedented scale could mean the end of privacy as we know it.

Because Poitras was among the first people Snowden contacted, because she became involved in the process, this is first and foremost an advocacy documentary with a compelling you-are-there quality. It puts us in the room where Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald, his key conduit to the outside world, conferred in Hong Kong's Mira Hotel over eight days as they made decisions about what was to be published and why.

These extensive hotel conversations are terribly exciting, but they take up so much of "Citizenfour's" running time they also result in a more limited film than viewers may be expecting. What we get is as much an edited record of those historic high-tension days as an examination of the issues surrounding electronic surveillance. "Citizenfour" is a formidable viewing experience, but it's not necessarily a problem-free film.

Poitras, a superb documentarian whose previous work includes "My Country, My Country" and "The Oath," was already working on a documentary about governmental surveillance when, in a scenario worthy of John le Carre or even Eric Ambler, she was contacted by a source identified only as "Citizenfour.

Read more:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-citizenfour-review-20141024-column.html