Citizen K

Gripping, admirably straightforward telling of Khodorkovsky's strange "career" packs a lot of information into a comparatively short running time (there's enough meat here for a 6 hour mini-series), giving the viewer a thorough primer on the life and times of its subject, via well chosen talking heads and clips which keep the potentially dry exposition dumps engaging and involving. Tale of Putin's rise through the ranks makes for a fascinating B-narrative.

Well the movie is clearly anti neo-russian which I have nothing against and agree on most of the points, but one wonders - are we being shaped into certain opinions? If Khodorkovsky was man of such fortune in 90s, he probably has a really dark side to him too, no? And he's also now a man of great fortunes. This aside, it's a great insight into Putin and when I see him in public I agree with Khodorkovsky, he's power-hungry, self-centered and incredibly proud man. A unique insight indeed.

Khodorkovsky seems to have his head on straight now, but let's not forget that he was one of the Oligarchs who screwed over the Russian people for years. It's nice that he's focusing his attention on taking down Putin, but it kinda feels dirty to root for him. Like cheering for Jeff Bezos or something