All tagged True Crime
Eddie Mannix is a complicated historical figure who becomes increasingly interesting as you learn more about his life. Several films have tried to encapsulate and explain his role with MGM, as a general manager and comptroller, but it’s difficult. To come out and say what he did, and to who, and why, is still tricky business, even if his reign ended some fifty years ago with his 1963 death.
Earnest fans of Koenig’s predecessor were excited for another whodunit, another true crime to unravel and dissect with precision and empathy. In reality, this was a near ruse, because though that this is the start of the story, it is definitely not the ending.
Amanda Knox comes off as a very likable and intelligent person. Many of the interviews she gives to the filmmakers show a likable, if eccentric, young woman who didn't know how to act when she came home to find her roommate, Meredith Kercher, viciously murdered.
Though their stories are often compelling and heartbreaking, the film works best when it looks at the overall issues of reporting and the way boys are let off the hook. The last interview with the Sherriff in Daisy's community had me actively yelling at my television screen. His idea of justice is to let the boys move on with their lives, like their offense is one that can be rectified and forgotten as a bit of juvenile fun.
Often it feels like Franco is putting us on, trying to play a child killer while hiding an insidious smirk behind the blank expression he wears for much of the film. Hill does his best, but the role isn't as meaty as past supporting performances in "The Wolf of Wall Street" or even "Moneyball." He's more subdued and anal, and it's not a look that Hill can pull off.
