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Art imitates life: Paranoia, secrecy and the surveillance state

On Monday's NOW with Alex Wagner, actor Eric Bana and director John Crowley joined Alex to discuss their new film, “Closed Circuit,” which follows CCTV cameras

On Monday's NOW with Alex Wagner, actor Eric Bana and director John Crowley joined Alex to discuss their new film, “Closed Circuit,” which follows CCTV cameras across London as the trial of an accused terrorist unveils an intricate web of classified evidence and a secret service cover-up.

"The promotional rollout, what with Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, has been formidable," joked Alex about the obvious parallels between the film's themes and the ongoing drama surrounding the NSA leaks. Indeed, with the most recent report of last weekend's nine hour detention of reporter Glenn Greenwald's partner in London's Heathrow airport, this summer is starting to look like some sort of viral marketing campaign gone awry.

In Crowley's words, the film asks "a few very timely questions about the extent to which, as citizens, we're comfortable what the government are going to do on out behalf, and if they break the law in order to protect our security, are they in danger of undermining the very thing they're actually setting out to achieve in the first place."

(Also revealed in the segment: In college, Alex was in a sketch comedy group called "Out of Bounds.")