Reality isn’t exactly a documentary about Reality Winner, but almost. It’s based on the FBI recording of the search and arrest of Reality Winner, a whistleblower who released files about Russian interference in the 2016 election to the press.

Reality uses well known actors to give a word for word performance of the conversation Reality Winner had with the FBI. It’s based on the recording they made on the day they arrested her. She had a classified job translating Arabic, Dari, and Pashto. She was a veteran of the Air Force.

In this film, Sydney Sweeney plays Reality. A few months ago, I reviewed Winner, with Emilia Jones playing Reality. That film looked at her entire life and upbringing. This film takes place in just a few hours during her initial FBI interview. It happened in the empty back room of her small house.

There were FBI agents crawling all over her house and searching her things. The two friendly, folksy-acting agents who did the interview while the search was ongoing were Agent Garrick (Josh Hamilton) and Agent Taylor (Marchánt Davis). She never asked for legal counsel. When confronted with the facts, she admitted what she had done. At the end of the day, she was arrested and subsequently served several years in jail.

Reality explained her actions by saying that Fox News played on the TVs at work all day long and it made her angry that they were lying to the American public. She had information showing how Russia had influenced the election of 2016 in order to get Trump elected. She smuggled it out of the building on sheets of paper she folded into her pantyhose.

Her information caused a stir in Democratic leaning circles, but did nothing to persuade right wing voters against putting their man in office again in 2024. I wish her bravery led to a different result, but, alas, here we are.

Tina Satter directed this version of the whistleblower’s story. It’s currently streaming on Hulu/Disney+ and HBO Max.