Latest Snowden trailer highlights the emotional toll of being a whistleblower

By Sam Barsanti | July 21, 2016 | 11:46pm

Film Features Film

Much like an actual employee of the NSA, anyone watching this new trailer for Oliver Stone’s Snowden will have to sift through a lot of distracting noise if they want to get to the real information. For one thing, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quickly proving himself to be the new Johnny Depp, but instead of putting on a weird hat he has to do a weird voice in every movie. Also, while the last trailer highlighted the political thriller angle, this one focuses a little more on the romance between Snowden and longtime girlfriend Lindsay Mills. She’s played here by Shailene Woodley, who is 11 years younger than Gordon-Levitt, and it’s almost as hard to ignore that as it is to ignore his weird voice.

If you manage to look past that stuff, though, this Snowden trailer still tells the story of a guy who’s trying to do what he thinks is right after being confronted with some shocking truths. It also has a spooky rendition of “When The Saints Go Marching In,” just in case you didn’t realize that the movie is a political thriller. Surprisingly, though, it doesn’t feature any scenes where Snowden looks at the camera and explains how Pokémon Go is going to destroy civilization, but maybe that’s just an Oliver Stone thing.