Female Film Critics 24/375
Using bodycam footage from many police visits, the true-crime documentary The Perfect Neighbor unfolds like a suspense thriller in a chilling, eerie spotlight on a suburban neighborhood feud that escalated into fear, anger, paranoia and ultimately, tragedy.
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The BritBox Original true crime drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, about the last woman hanged in Britain, will premiere with two episodes on Feb. 17. The British streaming service’s new four-part series is based on Carol Ann Lee’s acclaimed biography A Fine Day for Hanging: The Real Ruth Ellis Story. Following the two-episode premiere, the series will roll out weekly until its March 3 finale. With Lucy Boynton portraying the title character as ambitious, brave and steadfast, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story is billed as a compelling true crime drama telling the hidden story of Ruth Ellis and exposing the timeless British obsessions of class, sex and death.
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Documentarian Charlie Shackleton first came at Zodiac Killer Project as any true crime director would. Fascinated by the infamous Zodiac Killer case, he planned to adapt California policeman Lydon Lafferty’s book The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge into a documentary of some kind. This is a film for the true crime aficionados. The ones who fall asleep to murder podcasts and can quote Forensic Files by heart. It’s also for the skeptics, who call out the exploitation and manipulation of the genre.
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Most streaming crime dramas and police procedurals offer six, eight, or more episodes with lots of action. Therefore, the quiet, Swedish four-episode Netflix series The Breakthrough is both surprising and impressive, for it avoids all the usual clichés: the car chases, the explosions, the shootouts, the dark alleys, etc. Instead, it burrows into the second longest murder investigation in Swedish history. October 19, 2004, in Linköping, early in the morning, an unprovoked, hooded young man fatally stabs eight-year-old Adnan, casually on his way to school. The murderer then attacks middle-aged Gunilla, screaming as she intervenes, attempting to aid Adnan. Immediately, the detective known only as John promises Adnan’s parents and Gunilla’s husband that he will find the killer.
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21 year old British backpacker Grace Millane was murdered while traveling alone in Auckland, New Zealand in December of 2018. The only suspect in the case, her date Jesse Shane Kempson, used the “rough sex” defense when arrested. This documentary, from director Helena Coan, not only chillingly recounts the details leading to the death of the young and vibrant Grace, but also is meant to hold a mirror up to a society with a problem of violence towards women.
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Now deceased Australian director Jeffrey Darling’s only feature is the definition of “missed opportunity.” It is hoping to be some odd buddy comedy road trip movie with a “misunderstood” psychopath Bobby Falls (Jacob Elordi) hanging out with the broke and desperate Jim (Zachary Quinto) and a soon to be passed his use by date chimp called Spanky (played by Terry Notary’s child Phoenix). What the audience gets instead is a very messy sermon on how Bobby might have been different if someone handled his primal nature with the same care Jim showed Spanky.
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True crime podcasts, “murder shows,” and documentary films that expose the darker side of humanity have never been more popular — and there’s no denying they can be fun to listen to and watch. But what happens to the interviewees when the cameras stop rolling? What do the real-life people featured in documentaries give up when they agree to be filmed? The ethics of documentary filmmaking are at the heart of Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall’s fascinating, thought-provoking Subject.
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There is a built-in irony in this provocative documentary. Its subject, as the title so baldly states, is the subjects of documentaries and how these films continue to impact their lives long after the circus of filmmaking has moved on and a curious public has had an intimate glimpse into their lives. The doc is a fascinating film, creating more questions about the ethics of documentary filmmaking even as it attempts to find answers to one of documentary makers’ most basic quandaries and becoming part of that ethical argument itself.
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Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall shed light on a subject that could easily slip by our radar: the impact of documentaries and their ability to trend. With sensational voyeuristic fascination, the masses consume this fly on the wall world of real life through docuseries and films, But viewers are not aware that the documentary subjects are sometimes unsuspecting victims to exploitation — whether it’s whether unintentional or calculated.
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Subject takes a look at the ethics of documentary filmmaking, and particularly at what happens after the film is released. There are interviews with numerous people who were in documentaries as subjects or other participants, but not the directors of those films. There are, however, other documentary directors speaking about documentary filmmaking, just not about their own films – except where the director and the subject are the same person. Documentaries are having a moment right now, and even have become part of pop culture. We assume (or would like to assume) that what a documentary presents is true but is that always the case.
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