Snowden
Open Road Films | Release Date: September 16, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
21
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubSep 15, 2016
Moviegoers will love or hate Oliver Stone and his politics until the end of time. With well-made movies such as Snowden, though, his skill as a filmmaker becomes much harder for the detractors to debate. Read full review
100
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 10, 2016
It’s the most important and galvanizing political drama by an American filmmaker in years. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinSep 10, 2016
You might not agree with Stone that the man is a hero, but you probably do want to see the film so you can compute what the whole uproar was about. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonSep 15, 2016
Gordon-Levitt turns in an Oscar-worthy performance as a man who’s all too aware of what he’s letting himself in for. And Woodley skillfully balances a range of emotions as Lindsay. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenySep 15, 2016
Snowden has a secret weapon, and it’s one that I wasn’t expecting: a fully-engaged and on-his-game Oliver Stone. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 15, 2016
Regardless of how they feel about the main character, most viewers are likely to leave the theater reminded of Stone’s instinctive brilliance as a filmmaker — his grasp of visual language not just to tell a story but to expose its essential emotional core. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniSep 15, 2016
Chilling - and very chatty. Snowden is a seriously talky film. Yet it never feels tedious, thanks to Stone's tremendous sense of story construction, the film's razor-sharp editing - and Gordon-Levitt's masterful performance. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrSep 15, 2016
As always, it’s a good idea to do your homework before or after seeing an Oliver Stone movie. You may come out convinced of his point of view and still feel hustled by how he got you there. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 14, 2016
Snowden works best when it’s just Edward and the three journalists in that hotel room, sweating it out, or when we see the pattern of events that led him to commit acts that exposed the shocking practices of our own government but also quite possibly created serious security breaches. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 13, 2016
Even with its flaws, Snowden is Stone's return to relevance, in subject and execution. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenSep 13, 2016
Gordon-Levitt carries the movie, and without flash or overt dramatics, overshadows everyone else in it. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoSep 13, 2016
Despite my issues with the structure of Snowden, there are numerous accomplished scenes and the film is carried throughout by Gordon-Levitt. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 15, 2016
Mr. Stone has made an honorable and absorbing contribution to the imaginative record of our confusing times. He tells a story torn from slightly faded headlines, filling in some details you may have forgotten, and discreetly embellishing the record in the service of drama and suspense. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 15, 2016
It’s a gripping movie, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is good as Snowden (his voice alone is terrific), capturing his nerdy intelligence and passion for patriotism. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriSep 14, 2016
Stone seems genuinely interested in the slow and steady process by which Edward Snowden came to distrust the government that he worked for, and the director has made a slow and steady movie to go with it. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 14, 2016
Gordon-Levitt, however, nails the part completely, physically hunching down into himself and getting Snowden’s halting, thoughtful speech patterns just right, while Stone, working with screenwriter Kieran Fitzgerald, creates a whirlwind ride nearly but not quite worthy of The Parallax View-era conspiracy thrillers. Read full review
67
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerSep 14, 2016
Snowden is a film of sincere outrage, even when it strains to articulate that outrage in a less from-the-headlines manner. Read full review
67
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 11, 2016
Stone doesn’t care about Snowden as much as he does the ramifications of what his employers accomplished. He’s focused on the future, fearful the next person over-stepping boundaries is Donald Trump. This doesn’t make the film a resounding success, but it does make it fascinating. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 15, 2016
For a director whose reputation is built on aggressively in-your-face subjects and styles, Snowden stands as a strangely inert outlier, a project that lacks passion although not perspective. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 15, 2016
It's fairly absorbing though, increasingly, a bit of an eye-roller, and it's designed, photographed and edited to make you itchy with paranoia. Read full review
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