True Crime

Reviews

What Jennifer Did

Documentarian Jenny Popplewell returns to true crime with her latest film, What Jennifer Did.  Finding a comfortable balance between a conventional format (talking heads, unsettling nighttime B-roll) and the resourceful surveillance storytelling she exhibited in Netflix’s American Murder: The Family Next Door, Popplewell recounts the details of a disturbing attempted double murder, while also dissecting its police procedural.

Reviews

Bandit

Brief stylistic choices in the comical caper Bandit reminded me of 2013’s Pain & Gain. And while I shuddered remembering how nasty Michael Bay’s true-crime comedy was, those feelings were soon followed by a sigh of relief as Bandit’s charm washed over me.

Reviews

Marlene

By: Trevor Chartrand Marlene dramatizes the notorious true story of the wrongfully-convicted Canadian Steven Truscott, who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of classmate Lynne Harper in 1959.  Appropriately, the movie pays special attention to his wife, the titular Marlene, who spent years tirelessly researching his case and eventually clearing his name.  The justice system is put under close scrutiny during this understandably melodramatic, romanticized, version of true events and director Wendy…

Reviews

Above Suspicion

Directed by Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, The Bone Collector, Rabbit-Proof Fence), Above Suspicion is a fast-paced thriller based on the true story of a young Kentucky woman, Susan Smith (Emilia Clark), who becomes an up-and-coming FBI agent’s star informant.