True Story | |
---|---|
Directed by | Rupert Goold |
Written by |
|
Based on | True Story by Michael Finkel |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Masanobu Takayanagi |
Edited by | Christopher Tellefsen Nicolas De Toth |
Music by | Marco Beltrami |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 99 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $5.3 million [2] |
True Story is a 2015 American mystery thriller film that was directed by Rupert Goold in his directorial debut. It is based on a screenplay by Goold and David Kajganich. Based on the memoir of the same name by Michael Finkel, it stars Jonah Hill, James Franco and Felicity Jones, with Gretchen Mol, Betty Gilpin and John Sharian in supporting roles.
Franco plays Christian Longo, a man on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most-wanted list accused of murdering his wife and three children in Oregon. He hid in Mexico using the identity of Michael Finkel, a journalist played by Hill. [3] The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically on April 17, 2015, in the United States. It explores the relationship that develops between the two men after journalist Finkel begins to meet with Longo in prison.
In 2001, Christian Longo, an Oregon man whose wife and three children have been discovered murdered, is arrested by police in Mexico, where he had been identifying himself as a reporter for The New York Times named Michael Finkel. Meanwhile, in New York City, Finkel, an ambitious and successful reporter, is confronted by his editors about a cover story he has written for The New York Times Magazine in which he has used a composite character as the focus of his story, violating basic journalism principles. Finkel briefly attempts to defend his actions but is unsuccessful and is fired. He returns home to his wife Jill and struggles to find work as a journalist due to his public firing from the Times.
In 2003, Finkel is contacted by a reporter for The Oregonian , seeking his opinion on Longo's assumption of his identity. Unaware of Longo's case, Finkel is intrigued and arranges to meet Longo in prison. During their first conversation, Longo claims he has followed Finkel's career and admired his writing. Longo agrees to tell Finkel his side of the crimes he is accused of in exchange for writing lessons and Finkel's promise not to share their conversations until after the conclusion of the murder trial.
Finkel becomes increasingly absorbed with Longo, who is likable but evasive about his guilt. Convinced the story will be redemptive, Finkel visits Longo in prison and corresponds with him for several months. Longo sends Finkel numerous letters and an 80-page notebook entitled "Wrong Turns," which contains what Longo describes as a list of every mistake he has made. Finkel begins to recognize similarities between Longo and himself, their handwriting and drawing, and Longo's letters and Finkel's journals. As the trial approaches, Finkel becomes increasingly doubtful that Longo is guilty of the murders, and Longo informs Finkel that he intends to change his plea to not guilty.
In court, Longo pleads not guilty to two of the murders but pleads guilty to the murder of his wife and one of his daughters. Finkel confronts Longo, who claims he cannot share everything he knows because he has to protect certain people he refuses to name. Greg Ganley, the detective who tracked Longo down and arrested him, approaches Finkel and claims Longo is an extremely dangerous and manipulative man. He tries to convince Finkel to turn over as evidence all his correspondence with Longo. Finkel refuses, and Ganley does not press him for an explanation.
At the trial, Longo takes the stand and describes his version of the events in detail. After an argument with his wife about their financial situation, he claims he had come home to discover two of his children missing, one of his daughters unconscious, and his wife sobbing, saying she put the children "in the water." Longo says he strangled his wife to death in a blind rage. He says he thought his other daughter was dead at first but realized she was still breathing and strangled her as well because she was all but dead. Finkel's wife, Jill, watches Longo's testimony. As the jury deliberates, Jill visits Longo in jail and tells him he is a narcissistic murderer who will never escape who he is.
Longo is found guilty and sentenced to death. After he is sentenced, he winks at Finkel, who, to his shock and rage, realizes Longo has been lying throughout their conversations, using him to make his testimony more believable. A short time later, Finkel meets Longo on death row. Longo tries to convince Finkel he discovered his wife strangling their daughter and then blacked out, so he has no memory of the murders. Finkel angrily tells Longo he will not believe any more of his lies and will warn the judge, when Longo appeals against his sentence, of Longo's manipulative nature. Longo retorts by pointing out Finkel's success with his book about their encounters, leaving the reporter shaken.
Finkel reads a section of his book, True Story, at a promotional event in a bookstore. Taking questions from the audience, he imagines Longo standing in the back of the room. Finkel is unable to respond. Longo says if he has lost his freedom, Finkel must have also lost something.
A year later, title cards reveal that Longo admitted to killing his entire family. The final title card says Finkel and Longo still speak on the first Sunday of every month. Finkel never wrote for the Times again, but Longo has contributed articles to several publications from death row, including the Times.
Principal photography began in March 2013 in Warwick, New York and New York City. [4] [5] Brad Pitt produced, along with several others, and Fox Searchlight Pictures distributed. [6]
Marco Beltrami was hired on July 18, 2014, to write the film's music. [7]
When Jill visits Longo in prison, she plays him a recording of "Se la mia morte brami" (If you desire my death), a madrigal by the Italian renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo. She explains that despite its beauty, she can not hear it without remembering the facts of the composer's life: that Gesualdo murdered his wife, her lover, and their child. [8]
The film was originally scheduled for a limited theatrical release on April 10, 2015. [9] That release date was delayed for one week in favor of a wide release. [10]
True Story has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 45%, based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 5.44/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "James Franco and Jonah Hill make a watchable pair, but True Story loses their performances—and the viewer's interest—in a muddled movie that bungles its fact-based tale." [11] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [12]
Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Actor: Drama | James Franco | Nominated | [13] |
Jonah Hill | Nominated | |||
Choice Movie Actress: Drama | Felicity Jones | Nominated | ||
Kenneth Alessio Bianchi is an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist. He is known for the Hillside Strangler murders committed with his cousin Angelo Buono Jr. in Los Angeles, California, as well as for murdering two more women in Washington by himself. Bianchi is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Washington State Penitentiary for these crimes. Bianchi was also at one time a suspect in the Alphabet murders, three unsolved murders in his home city of Rochester, New York, from 1971 to 1973.
Peter Kürten was a German serial killer, known as "The Vampire of Düsseldorf" and the "Düsseldorf Monster", who committed a series of murders and sexual assaults between February and November 1929 in the city of Düsseldorf. In the years before these assaults and murders, Kürten had amassed a lengthy criminal record for offences including arson and attempted murder. He also confessed to the 1913 murder of a nine-year-old girl in Mülheim am Rhein and the attempted murder of a 17-year-old girl in Düsseldorf.
Albert Henry DeSalvo was an American murderer and rapist who was active in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 1960s. He is known to have confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", a serial killer who murdered thirteen women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964. Lack of physical evidence supported his confession, and he was only prosecuted in 1967 for a series of unrelated rapes, for which he was convicted and imprisoned until his death in 1973. His confessing to having murdered multiple women was disputed, and debates continued regarding which crimes he truly had committed.
The Boston Strangler is the name given to the murderer of 13 women in Greater Boston during the early 1960s. The crimes were attributed to Albert DeSalvo based on his confession, on details revealed in court during a separate case, and DNA evidence linking him to the final victim.
Robert Emmet Chambers Jr. is an American criminal and convicted murderer. Dubbed the Preppy Killer and the Central Park Strangler, Chambers gained notoriety for the August 26, 1986, strangulation death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in New York City's Central Park, for which he was originally charged with second degree murder. Chambers changed his story several times during the course of the ensuing investigation, ultimately claiming that Levin's death was the accidental result of him pushing her off of him as she purportedly sexually assaulted him, an account that was characterized by media accounts as one of "rough sex". Chambers later pleaded guilty to manslaughter after a jury failed to reach a verdict after nine days of deliberation.
Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Lynette Scavo in the ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives and her role as a transgender woman in the film Transamerica (2005). Over her career she has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award.
Richard Leonard Kuklinski, also known as "The Iceman", was an American criminal and a convicted murderer. He was engaged in criminal activities for most of his adult life; he ran a burglary ring and distributed pirated pornography. Kuklinski committed at least five murders between 1980 and 1984. Prosecutors described him as killing for profit. He was nicknamed "the Iceman" by authorities after they discovered that he had frozen the body of one of his victims in an attempt to disguise the time of death.
Johann "Jack" Unterweger was an Austrian serial killer who committed murder in several countries – Austria, West Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. Initially convicted in 1974 of a single murder, Unterweger began to write extensively while in prison. His work gained the attention of the Austrian intellectuals, who interpreted it as evidence of his supposed rehabilitation.
Art School Confidential is a 2006 American comedy-drama film directed by Terry Zwigoff and starring Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar, Ethan Suplee, Joel Moore, Nick Swardson, Adam Scott, and Anjelica Huston. About Jerome (Minghella) who enrolls in art school and is loosely based on the comic of the same name by Daniel Clowes. The film is Zwigoff's second collaboration with Clowes, the first being 2001's Ghost World, which was also released by United Artists. The film received polarized reviews from critics.
Jonah Hill is an American actor and comedian. The accolades he has received include nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
I vinti is a 1953 drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. An anthology film, it consists of three separate stories in three different countries, all with the common theme of youths who commit murders. In the French story, set in Paris, two schoolboys decide to kill a classmate for his money. In the Italian story, set in Rome, a university student who is involved in smuggling cigarettes shoots a man during a police raid. In the English story, set in London, a young unemployed man says he has found the body of a woman and tries to sell his story to the press. The film was a project of Film Constellation to Suso Cecchi d'Amico, who proposed Antonioni as director, and it screened at the 1953 Venice Film Festival.
Moneyball is a 2011 American biographical sports drama film that was directed by Bennett Miller with a script by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin from a story by Stan Chervin. The film is based on the 2003 nonfiction book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. The book is an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to assemble a competitive team. In the film, Beane and assistant general manager Peter Brand, faced with the franchise's limited budget for players, build a team of undervalued talent by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach to scouting and analyzing players. Philip Seymour Hoffman also stars as Art Howe.
Murder in Reverse is a 1945 British thriller film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring William Hartnell, Jimmy Hanley and Chili Bouchier. It is based on the story Query by "Seamark".
Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case (1975) is a TV drama film, starring George Peppard and directed by Robert Michael Lewis. It was produced by Harold Gast and Harve Bennett.
Christian Michael Longo is a convicted murderer who killed his wife and three children in Oregon in December 2001.
Michael Finkel is a journalist and memoirist, who has written the books True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa (2005), The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit (2017), and The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession (2023).
The Young, the Evil and the Savage, also known as Schoolgirl Killer, is a 1968 Italian giallo film directed by Antonio Margheriti.
War Dogs is a 2016 American black comedy crime film directed by Todd Phillips and written by Phillips, Jason Smilovic and Stephen Chin, based on the 2011 Rolling Stone article, "Arms and the Dudes", by Guy Lawson The film follows two arms dealers, Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz, who receive a U.S. Army contract to supply ammunitions for the Afghan National Army worth approximately $300 million. The film, which features an unreliable narrator and is labeled as being "based on a true story", is heavily fictionalized and dramatized, with some of its events, such as the duo driving through Iraq, were either invented or based on other events, such as Chin's own experiences.
David Kajganich is an American screenwriter and producer. He has written several works in the horror genre, including the network series The Terror (2018) and the film Bones and All (2022). He has collaborated on three films with the Italian director Luca Guadagnino, A Bigger Splash (2015) and the horror films Suspiria (2018) and Bones and All (2022).
Boston Strangler is a 2023 American true crime film written and directed by Matt Ruskin. It is based on the true story of the Boston Strangler, who, in the 1960s Boston, killed 13 women. The film stars Keira Knightley as Loretta McLaughlin, the reporter who broke the news for the Boston Record American, with Carrie Coon, Alessandro Nivola, Chris Cooper, David Dastmalchian, and Morgan Spector.