The Fifth Estate

This film is about more than the rise of WikiLeaks, which like the 2010 film Social Network is plenty engaging in itself as a tale. It's the fact that the Fifth Estate is a well executed weave of story elements. It's one part "biopic" -- it gives viewers greater humanizing insight into the motivations of Julian Assange as a person of both wide vision yet interpersonal flaw, (amazingly played by actor Benedict Cumberbatch BTW); another part is a retelling of the David and Goliath story motif, only here there's a collision between the alienated individual human being looking for genuine trustworthy connection with other human beings, and the often dehumanizing secretive workings of governments and banks; and it's a history on-the-run look at the reformatting of journalistic practice in the modern world as nimble unapologetic citizen journalists empowered by technology (the Fifth Estate) reclaim much of our power over "information flow" and the revelation of truths, long in the hands of corporate-newsroom priests (the Fourth Estate) Though by no means a shallow Hollywood bang-bang action formula film, it has plenty of dramatic action of socially consequential merit. As such, it wouldn't surprise me if this film wins several Golden Globes and more than a few Oscars, including Best Actor for Cumberbatch.