The truth is out there
COMPELLING STORIES OF REAL LIFE DRAMA ARE PROVOCATIVE, SOBERING AND HEARTWARMING
LEIGH PAATSCH hits the streaming platforms in search of the best recent movies that tell a true story well worth hearing …
15 MINUTES OF SHAME (M) BINGE, FOXTEL
Currently back in the public eye due to her prominence in the superb limited series Impeachment, Monica Lewinsky serves as both producer and joint narrator of an engrossing documentary on a subject she knows a little something about.
The hot topic here is how the rise of the internet has weaponised the age-old practice of public shaming. Whereas, once upon a time, people may have paid for their mistakes by being pelted with fruit in a town square, those who transgress now face a more damning, unrecoverable cost. One slip-up can blow up an entire life, vaporising careers, friends and families within 24 hours of being “cancelled”.
Lewinsky’s team track down a fascinating group of people who have experienced the explosion of a social media shaming. You will immediately appreciate their bravery for daring to return to the blast crater of where their lives used to be. Maybe you will also think twice before joining the next internet pile-on that will crush a person forever?
OUR FRIEND (M) AMAZON
A beautiful document of a simple, yet profound gesture. Though it looks and feels like a run-of-the-mill Hollywood weepie, shrewd casting and scripting lifts everything to a higher place.
This is the true story of Nicole Teague (Dakota Johnson) and her journalist husband Matthew (Casey Affleck). Reeling from a devastating cancer diagnosis for Nicole, the couple turn to a longtime pal for solace. Remarkably, Dane Faucheux (Jason Segel) drops everything to reenter his old friends’ lives, making a subtle, yet stirring difference in a trying time. Deceptively great stuff on offer here.
FOUR GOOD DAYS (M) RENT ONLY
A sobering, profoundly warm and illuminating snapshot of a mother’s enduring love for her daughter, and her daughter’s decade-long addiction to hard drugs. Adapted from a powerful Washington Post article about a Michigan family, this open hearted, yet toughminded drama draws unexpectedly convincing work from Mila Kunis as the daughter. As for the mother, she is played by the ever-dependable Glenn Close. Need I say any more?
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (MA15+) RENT ONLY
The troubling true story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), the incendiary leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panthers movement. Hampton’s rise to national prominence in the late 1960s came in the wake of the tragic death of Martin Luther King.
Little wonder, then, that FBI head J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) just as swiftly issues a covert ruling that Hampton’s voice must be silenced.
DARK WATERS (M) BINGE, FOXTEL
A provocative drama about a lawyer reluctantly pursuing a chemical company knowingly poisoning the public.
Environmental lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) was an unlikely contender to start such a protracted paper chase, which took 15 years before his adversaries finally stopped running. A fine issues-based affair, worthy of comparison to the likes of The Insider and Erin Brockovich.
GREYHOUND (M) APPLE TV+
A lean and meaningful war picture. At the height of WWII, a convoy of American supply ships is being stalked by a pack of German U-boats.
Their only protection comes from destroyers such as the USS Keeling, under the command of a rookie skipper on his first assignment in combat conditions. The movie sticks close to the stressed, yet clearthinking strategic perspective of Commander Ernest Krause (compellingly played by Tom Hanks).
MANK (M) NETFLIX
A wildly vivid time machine of a movie, taking us back to the genesis of the cinema masterpiece Citizen Kane. Many people assume this landmark 1941 drama was the sole work of its young whiz-kid creator (and star) Orson Welles.
What Mank makes clear is that it was Welles’ co-writer Herman Mankiewicz (played by Gary Oldman) who was really responsible for Citizen Kane’s game-changing tale of a mysterious media baron.
THE COURIER (M) RENT ONLY
The gripping true story of Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), an everyday British gent who found himself at the epicentre of the most seismic events of the Cold War. More a genial salesman than a suave spy, Wynne was never intended to be used in acts of espionage by UK and US intelligence.
Nevertheless, the intel he unwittingly acquired during multiple trips to Moscow played a pivotal role in avoiding a global nuclear catastrophe.
MISBEHAVIOUR (M) BINGE, FOXTEL
At the 1970 Miss World beauty pageant in London, the Women’s Liberation Movement had a form of protest in mind for the live global telecast that remains more audacious, daring and kind of silly than anyone would dare try today.
Though a bit slow to get going, the heated finale proves well worth the wait. Stars Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
NOMADLAND (M) FOXTEL, DISNEY+
One of the finest movies of the past year is deeply embedded in a reality few screen productions could ever hope to capture. Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a member of a rapidly swelling class of people in America who now refer to themselves as “nomads”: people who live year-round in campervans, travelling to places where seasonal work is plentiful enough to draw a basic wage. Almost everybody McDormand encounters is a real-life nomad, and what transpires is never anything but authentic and true.
THE DIG (M) NETFLIX
Impeccably filmed and acted, this refreshingly unpretentious and genuinely fascinating period piece has been one of the surprise global hits of 2021 for Netflix. This is the story of a British woman named Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) who hires a self-taught archaeologist (Ralph Fiennes) to investigate some unusual land formations on her rural property in the late 1930s. Edith’s hunch results in one of the most significant historical discoveries of the 20th century. Highly recommended.
ALL MY LIFE BINGE, FOXTEL, AMAZON
Solomon Chau and Jennifer Carter had locked in the perfect wedding date. Instead, that much-circled place on the calendar became the day of Solomon’s funeral. This unabashed weepie tells the sincerely moving true story of how this resilient couple didn’t let a worst-case scenario (Solomon was diagnosed with a terminal liver condition) erase their best-laid plans (a viral crowd-funding campaign ensured they got married before losing each other forever).