[7] Meryl Streep stars in the true story of a plutonium processing worker who is purposefully contaminated with the lethal substance after she initiates a whistle-blowing campaign about the company’s safety standards. Kurt Russel plays the love interest and Cher plays the best-friend and would-be lesbian lover. As directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate), Silkwood conjures a very specific and palpable setting — the impoverished …
[6] James Woods stars as the museum director taken to court when photographs from Robert Mapplethorpe’s 1990 exhibit were accused of being obscene in Cincinnati, Ohio. Diana Scarwid and Craig T. Nelson also star in this made-for-cable movie that incorporates Mapplethrope’s photos and interviews with political pundits and people who knew and worked with Mapplethorpe. I enjoyed the artist’s photos and the documentary interview bits, …
[8] A father tries to save his son from drug addiction in this true story based on the lives and writings of David Sheff and Nic Sheff. Beautiful Boy opens on the father, played by Steve Carell (Little Miss Sunshine), waiting up all night for his son to return home. Two days pass while Carell phones local hospitals and police, getting more desperate by the …
[7] Director Justin Kurzel tells the true story of Australia’s most notorious serial killer through the eyes of his teenaged accomplice. Teenager Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) falls in with his mother’s new boyfriend, John Bunting (Daniel Henshall). Bunting becomes a father figure to Jamie and preys on the boy’s feelings of insecurity, transforming him into his own private henchman. First, they scare a molester out of …
[7] Spike Lee directs the stranger-than-fiction true story of a black Colorado police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. John David Washington stars as Ron Stallworth, who struck up a relationship with local KKK members over the phone and acted through a white surrogate for face-to-face encounters. Adam Driver plays Stallworth’s partner in the investigation. Just how much is truth and …
[8] Margot Robbie is Oscar-calibre as disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding, who was stripped of her titles and banned from the sport after her husband spearheaded an assault on her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, in 1994. I, Tonya paints the picture of a young girl growing up poor and fatherless, with only a ruthless monster of a mother to guide her. Allison Janney (The West Wing) is in …
[8] Ridley Scott (The Martian, Alien) directs the true-life tale of the 1973 Getty kidnapping. After masked men whisk 16-year-old John Paul Getty III off the streets of Rome, his mother tries to get the ransom money from the boy’s grandfather, John Paul Getty — the richest man in the entire world at that time. But the oil tycoon won’t pay the ransom and the …
[6] Everest is the true story of a deadly 1996 expedition up Mount Everest in which two climbing parties suffered casualties after a fierce blizzard engulfed the mountain with little warning. The film is more of a dramatic biopic than a sensational survival flick, and while that’s normally a good thing, I do wish Everest were a little more suspenseful or exciting. The ensemble cast …
[7] James Franco directs and co-stars with his brother Dave in The Disaster Artist. the true story of two men of questionable talent who move to Hollywood and spend millions of dollars making one the worst movies ever made, The Room. Franco emerses himself in the role of Tommy Wiseau, a weird, kinda-creepy dude of indiscernable age and heritage. His accent sounds a little European, …
[6] Al Pacino stars in the true story of Frank Serpico, a New York City cop who discovers a city-wide bribe scheme police are profiting from and rejects becoming part of it. But in doing so, he loses the trust of all the other cops and becomes a laughing stock… and then a target. I love Sidney Lumet movies and I love Al Pacino, but …
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