Review: The Fifth Estate brings intense sequences telling the story of the infamous WikiLeaks Organization with brilliant acting and storytelling

Mitchell Stein- Fall is a great time for movies. With the annual Academy Awards drawing closer, every Hollywood film company rushes to make sure their movie is in the roster for the upcoming award ceremony and most of those films are placed in the fall schedule to ensure that it's still fresh on people's minds. One of these films is The Fifth Estate. Now, if it deserves the Best Picture award is unknown, but it deserves an honorable mention in the running.

The Disney-distributed film (under Disney's brand; Touchstone Pictures) The Fifth Estate tells the true-infamous story of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks leaking thousands of classified documents and secrets from all over the world. It takes you on a adventure around the world and through the sophisticated world of hacking and computers, something most of us will never understand but can only visualize.

The movie starts off with a brilliant video montage showcasing many legendary and infamous scenes in history including the Civil War, the Titanic, The Holocaust, Kennedy's Assassination, 9/11 and showcases how far we've come in terms of media and press news, first showcasing stamp-machines and typewriters and moving forward to today, with TVs and Internet.
It sets a fast-paced vibe that last throughout the entire movie, slowing down only for several moments to catch your breath before more intense thrilling scenes.

The movie's plot starts in 2010, with the famous leaks of classified US-Military information concerning the Afghanistan War courtesy of Bradley/Chelsea Manning. The rest of the movie flashes back to 2007 and tells the full-story leading up to the events in 2010. A style which is familiar, but never used quite as well as The Fifth Estate used it.

Some people called Assange a hero, and some oppose and call him a traitor to the American people and condemn him. The Fifth Estate captures both sides of that argument and delivers both those aspects of the story to a neutral point of view.

As an aspiring director and being a member of the media, this movie was incredible. Director Bill Condon pulled a lot of great visuals and directing techniques which had me floored throughout the movie. The sequences that imagine the online word of encryption and hacking and truly brilliant.
It also captures a lot of behind-the scenes at the media, showing some secrets and other things that happen on a daily basis at the press office.

The acting was fantastic as well. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Hobbit) was brilliant was the movie's co-protagonist Julian Assange along with Daniel Bruhl as Daniel Berg who goes by the pseudonym Daniel Schmidt.
Also in the movie is David Thewlis (Harry Potter films, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who, Torchwood) Jamie Blackley (Snow White and the Huntsman) and
a whole lot more great actors. Plus, the main actors look almost exactly like the real Assange and Berg/Schdimt as seen on the
right.

The Blu-Ray Combo Pack also has a great lineup of bonus features, my favorite was The Submission Platform showing how they filmed some of the most iconic scenes in the movie. Also included was Scoring Secrets, where composer Carter Burwell showcases a full range of musical styles that were heard in the movie and a lot more great behind the scenes looks along with all the great TV spots and trailers that were seen before the movie was released.

Overall, I highly recommend this Blu-Ray release to anyone who enjoys the biopic style films. It's a great movie included with great bonus features. It's a true masterpiece on stunning high-def Blu-Ray.

The Fifth Estate is leaked to DVD and Blu-Ray January 28th. Be on the lookout for a special giveaway later this week! 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com