Movies

Adam Driver, Annette Bening hound the CIA in riveting trailer for The Report

Jon Hamm, Corey Stoll, Michael C. Hall, Tim Blake Nelson, and Maura Tierney also star in Scott Z. Burns' Sundance breakout following Dianne Feinstein's inquisition into the CIA's post-9/11 torture tactics

By

Joey Nolfi

Published on August 22, 2019 09:41AM EDT

Adam Driver and Annette Bening have turned in an A-plus trailer for their likely awards contender The Report.

Directed by frequent Steven Soderbergh producer Scott Z. Burns (Side Effects, The Laundromat) as his directorial debut, the fact-based drama — which generated significant Oscar buzz at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in January — follows a U.S. Select Committee on Intelligence staffer, Daniel J. Jones (Driver) who assists his no-nonsense boss, Senator Dianne Feinstein (Bening), in investigating the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program in the wake of 9/11.

Along the way, Jones relentlessly pursues the truth about the branch’s alleged dealings in torture, destroying evidence, subverting the law, and hiding grim secrets from the American public following the deadly terrorist attacks in New York City.

“They waterboarded him 183 times. Everything they got from him was either a lie or something they already had,” Driver says to Bening in the clip, who asks: “If it works, why do you need to do it 183 times?”

“Maybe when the report comes out,” Jones finishes, “people will finally see that.”

The footage that follows previews their intense back-and-forth with varying levels of opposition, including characters played by Jon Hamm, Corey Stoll, Michael C. Hall, Tim Blake Nelson, and Maura Tierney.

EW’s Leah Greenblatt called the film “a sobering, supremely well-crafted procedural in the vein of Spotlight in The Post that seems designed to induce anger and catharsis in equal measure” in her Sundance review, while others have hailed it as an early Academy Awards player — specifically for Bening, who’s been nominated four times (without winning) throughout her career.

The Report enters limited theatrical release via Amazon on Nov. 15. Watch the film’s first teaser above, and see the new poster below.