Acclaimed documentarian Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) has returned with no-holds-bared look at WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website run by enigmatic Australian internet activist Julian Assange. The site's mandate involved publishing top-secret documents and covert information, sending security services into wild panic and making Assange a rock-star of 21st century media.

Assange nor WikiLeaks have been involved with the movie, which directs most of its focus on Bradley Manning, the US Army intelligence analyst who admitted to leaking hundreds of thousands of secret military logs to WikiLeaks and who faces possible life imprisonment in a military trial. Late on Thursday (May 23, 2013) - ahead of the movie's limited release in theater - WikiLeaks said We Steal Secrets "portrays Manning's alleged acts as a failure of character rather than a triumph of conscience," and said the film's portrayal of his relationship with Assange was "grossly irresponsible".

Watch the WikiLeaks: We Steal Secrets Trailer!

Nevertheless, the critics have once again rallied behind Gibney - who won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for his movie Taxi to the Dark Side in 2007. Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times called We Steal Secrets, "A sprawling, ambitious, major work -- a gripping exploration of power, personality, technology and the crushing weight that can come to bear on those who find themselves in its combined path." A.A Dowd of the AV Club said, "Those looking for a summary of the WikiLeaks phenomenon-from the big leaks to the major shifts in public perception about Assange and his cause-won't find a more cleanly delineated version."

WikiLeaks We Steal Secrets hits theaters in the U.S today on a limited run (May 24, 2013).

Julian AssangeAlex Gibney
Julian Assange [L] Certainly Has His Supporters, While Alex Gibney [R] Deservedly Has His