Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Capturing the story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with unprecedented access, director Laura Poitras finds herself caught between the motives and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle in a documentary portrait of power, betrayal, truth and sacrifice.
Risk benefits enormously from Poitras's unprecedented fly-on-the-wall access to Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks inner circle, giving it a distinctively immersive and morally complicated texture that sets it apart from conventional political documentaries. The observational approach and Poitras's own increasingly conflicted narration lend the film a rare self-reflexive quality — a documentarian questioning her own subject mid-process. However, the film's structural looseness and episodic nature prevent the plot from building satisfying dramatic momentum, and the ending feels inconclusive and deflating rather than purposefully open. Cinematography is competent vérité work without exceptional visual ambition. The subject matter and access are compelling enough, but the film leaves many threads unresolved, undermining its overall impact.