No matter what you think of Edward Snowden – whether he’s a traitor or a patriot – Citizenfour is a fascinating portrait of one of the biggest stories of 2013. It is the case of “right filmmaker at the right time” as Snowden reached out to documentary director Laura Poitras almost immediately when he made the decision to leak these policy-shattering documents on the NSA’s domestic spying program. The film isn’t necessarily the high-intrigue thriller that a lot of reviewers make it out to be (pretty hard to accomplish that feat in a documentary), but the story is interesting enough to keep your attention throughout. Poitras was obviously emotionally and materially invested in Snowden’s story, so she kind of ignores what his detractors believe about his actions and their justifications behind those beliefs, which in turn makes the film feel like a myth-building exercise. The best parts of Citizenfour come towards the end as an outed Snowden finally looks like he is no longer in control of his own destiny, and Poitras’s camera captures these moments quietly and without commentary.