In May 2017, Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey, a decision that angered NSA (National Security Agency) translator Reality Winner so much that she leaked a classified document about Russian hacking in the 2016 US election to an online news site called The Intercept. This short, sharp drama, named after the whistleblower (played with impressive poise by Sydney Sweeney), documents the events of June 3, 2017 – the day she was arrested.
Using dialogue from the FBI’s actual audio transcription of the events, augmented with TV news clips, the action in Reality takes place mostly at its subject’s home in August, Georgia. Special Agents Justin Garrick (Josh Hamilton, Eighth Grade) and Rob Wallace (Marchánt Davis, The Day Shall Come) prevent Reality from entering her home and tell her to put her dog in the backyard. They take her mobile phone and keep her under close surveillance. They ask questions about her animals and hobbies such as power-lifting and her past in the Air Force, as well as details about her job translating documents from Farsi into English. Then, when they take Reality into a bare, prison cell-like back-room in her home, the real interrogation begins.
Although several other agents search the house, Reality is for the most part a three-hander – and if it feels like a play, that’s because it’s based on Is This A Room, from which director Tina Satter adapted to make this film. Slowly but surely, the details of exactly what Reality did and how she did it are revealed. It’s gripping stuff, with clever sound design heightening Reality’s increasing distress as she realises what trouble she’s in.
Sweeney is excellent as the whistleblower who slowly but surely realises the game is up and creeps from poised confidence to frightened, tearful regret. Hamilton and Davis are also very believable as agents in complete control. They know they have evidence that she has leaked the info and go about coaxing the what, how and why of her leaking with dexterity but it’s frustrating that certain parts of the audio (and, indeed, original document) has been redacted. It would have been especially interesting to know exactly what the alleged Russian hacking involved and how it was done. At the very least, the film casts doubt on the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s presidency but just how much influence did the Russian involvement have on the election outcome? At the end of this smart, tight drama we’re left wondering.
Details
Director: Tina Satter
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis
Release date:Reality screened at the Berlin Film Festival in February. A UK cinema release has not been confirmed yet
Director Nenad Cicin-Sain’s Kiss the Future isn’t a traditional concert documentary (it boasts Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as producers, for a start), but it does end with U2’s historic 1997 gig in Sarajevo. The title is a reference to something frontman Bono shouted out while on-stage (“Viva Sarajevo! Fuck the past, kiss the future!”), urging the war-torn people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to embrace a new beginning after the end of the Bosnian War. It was an emotional moment, demonstrating the power of music to bring people together – and remains so in this film.
We kick off with a series of newly shot interviews with the band. They express their love for The Clash and pay tribute to the punk DIY ethos, a culture that influenced them on their way to becoming global stars. Soon, American aid worker Bill Carter picks up the narrative. His memoir, FoolsRush In, formed the basis for Kiss the Future (Carter also gets a story credit) – and he gives a scary account of living in Sarajevo when the city was under siege by the Yugoslav People’s Army, and then Serbian forces, from 1992-96. Snipers take pot shots at residents from afar and buildings are destroyed by artillery fire, but somehow, an illicit, underground party scene keeps morale levels up.
Clips of these shows, alongside desolate images of war appear on-screen while Carter, musicians such as Enes Zlatar Bure from local band Sikter and CNN’s on-the-ground reporter Christine Amanpour explain how things really were. The testimony and footage is eye-opening – sometimes grimly depressing, sometimes cheering. The human spirit can’t be denied, even in the worst situations.
One evening, Carter sees Bono on MTV offering support to the people of Sarajevo. Cleverly, he notices the band are playing nearby Italy, travels there, and manages to secure an interview for the Bosnian resistance’s pirate TV channel. Bono is so moved by the situation that he starts dedicating the band’s 1991 hit ‘One’ to the city on their ‘Zooropa’ world tour. He even incorporates live TV interviews carried by Carter from Sarajevo to Italy into U2’s sets, until one fed up native questions the point of U2 screening their small updates without taking any real action. The powers-that-be pull the plug.
A happy ending sees some 45,000 attend the 1997 show, an electric, poignant event at which the band played a set including ‘With Or Without You’, ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’ and ‘Miss Sarajevo’, the 1995 song they made with Brian Eno about the brave women who staged a beauty pageant during the siege. Held at Koševo Stadium, it was the first time a major artist had visited since the conflict ended. Watching snippets from the gig, you can hear Bono’s voice crack and the crowd’s appreciation is almost tangible. It’s easy to question the motives of pop stars who get behind a cause, but the end-product here is a joyful night for people who’ve experienced unimaginable hardship. Cynicism can (and should) be put aside for now.
Details
Director: Nenad Cicin-Sain
Featuring: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton
Release date: February 19 (Berlin Film Festival screening), TBC (UK cinema release)
As the rapper Rich Brian, Brian Imanuel is already a star in his native Indonesia and a familiar face in US hip-hop. But for his first feature film, he plays the greenhorn. His acting debut, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week, is a fresh look at the pitfalls of early fame.
Imanuel stars as aspiring rapper James, who’s fired his father Joyo from being his manager on an Indonesian TV show and is hosted by his record company at a luxury beachfront home in Hawaii to help clear his head while making his first album. Joyo, played heartbreakingly by Indonesian cinema legend Yayu Unru, turns up in Hawaii anyway just as James meets label bosses at a swanky restaurant. He’s treated with disdain by his tough American manager Shannon (Kate Lyn Sheil, She Dies Tomorrow) and we soon learn that Joyo, who James finds embarrassing as he cleans up spilt drinks and acts like a waiter, is perhaps the only person who genuinely cares for him.
Jamojaya’s focus on the backstage life of a star making videos, recording in the studio and having meetings as he attempts to balance the trappings of success with the grounded, homely advice of his father, is an interesting one. Part of Joyo’s devotion to James is due to the loss of his other son, who died in the MH370 Malaysia Airlines plane crash. It’s not uncommon to see a parent overcompensate when losing a child, lavishing all their attention on their remaining kid – and who could blame them after such devastation?
Yaya Unru in ‘Jamojaya’. CREDIT: Ante Cheng
Regardless of Joyo’s eccentric ways – he always seems to have a bag of fresh, self-picked fruit, for one thing – he asks fair questions about who pays for the huge, opulent house they are staying in and if he seems suspicious about the record label bosses, these are well-founded: James’s producer Vic (a friend of Joyo) is sacked against his wishes and James eventually gives away his publishing rights after Joyo pushes untrustworthy CEO Michael into a swimming pool.
Jamojaya has some fine performances, with Unru, Imanuel and Sheil particularly good and even Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis turning up on good form as a mean music video director. But authenticity and screen presence can only get you so far. Director and co-writer Justin Chon’s film is not saying anything new here, just presenting it slightly abstractly with brief flashbacks (and flash-forwards) alongside Joyo’s unusual tree and plant-based rituals.
From A Star is Born to Vox Lux and even Machine Gun Kelly movie Taurus, the perils of pop stardom have often been mined as a source of big screen entertainment. There is obviously an appetite for this kind of story. Just don’t expect to have your mind blown.
Details
Director: Justin Chon
Starring: Brian Imanuel, Yayu Unru, Kate Lyn Sheil
Cat Person brings together CODA’s Emilia Jones and Succession star Nicholas Braun as an unlikely NYC couple who go on a few unsatisfactory dates before things turn incredibly ugly. It’s adapted from Kristen Roupenian’s acclaimed 2017 short story in The New Yorker, but sadly lacks the punch or brevity of its source material.
Margot (Jones) is a 20-year-old student working at a cinema, which the slightly older Robert (Braun) visits alone one time. Robert is awkward – though in a less endearing or interesting fashion than Succession’s Cousin Greg. Eventually, he asks Margot for her number and, after turning up at her uni loaded with snacks, gets locked in a dark room with her before using his hulking frame to smash the door down.
Emilia Jones leads new drama ‘Cat Person’. CREDIT: StudioCanal
Following a proper date to see The Empire Strikes Back (Robert’s a big fan), they end up having sex but Margot still isn’t sure she likes him. It doesn’t help that Robert is a terrible kisser and lousy lover. On top of that, he shows little self-awareness – and can’t hide his dissatisfaction when Margot gets the title of an Indiana Jones movie wrong. Luckily, Margot’s pal Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan) listens to Margot moaning about Robert long enough to steal her phone and dump him via text. The film still has nearly an hour to go though, which means that’s definitely not the end of it. What follows is a bizarre and unnecessary epilogue that plays more like an unimaginative, tame horror film. Coming after a fairly straightforward takedown of toxic dating, it feels weird.
In hindsight, director Susanna Fogel seems to have been trying to make a diet version of Promising Young Woman. That darkly funny revenge thriller at least contained plenty of shocks and laughs, while leaving you in no doubt how dangerous dating can be as a woman. Cat Person has some interesting ideas – such as when an invisible twin Margot appears on-screen to voice her thoughts – but other than that it never really excites. Neither Braun nor Jones seem particularly into each other – and It’s puzzling why Margot even accepts Robert’s number to begin with. Much like a bad date, Cat Person feels like a missed opportunity.
Details
Director: Susanna Fogel
Starring: Emilia Jones, Nicholas Braun, Geraldine Viswanathan
Cat Person brings together CODA’s Emilia Jones and Succession star Nicholas Braun as an unlikely NYC couple who go on a few unsatisfactory dates before things turn incredibly ugly. It’s adapted from Kristen Roupenian’s acclaimed 2017 short story in The New Yorker, but sadly lacks the punch or brevity of its source material.
Margot (Jones) is a 20-year-old student working at a cinema, which the slightly older Robert (Braun) visits alone one time. Robert is awkward – though in a less endearing or interesting fashion than Succession’s Cousin Greg. Eventually, he asks Margot for her number and, after turning up at her uni loaded with snacks, gets locked in a dark room with her before using his hulking frame to smash the door down.
Emilia Jones leads new drama ‘Cat Person’. CREDIT: StudioCanal
Following a proper date to see The Empire Strikes Back (Robert’s a big fan), they end up having sex but Margot still isn’t sure she likes him. It doesn’t help that Robert is a terrible kisser and lousy lover. On top of that, he shows little self-awareness – and can’t hide his dissatisfaction when Margot gets the title of an Indiana Jones movie wrong. Luckily, Margot’s pal Taylor (Geraldine Viswanathan) listens to Margot moaning about Robert long enough to steal her phone and dump him via text. The film still has nearly an hour to go though, which means that’s definitely not the end of it. What follows is a bizarre and unnecessary epilogue that plays more like an unimaginative, tame horror film. Coming after a fairly straightforward takedown of toxic dating, it feels weird.
In hindsight, director Susanna Fogel seems to have been trying to make a diet version of Promising Young Woman. That darkly funny revenge thriller at least contained plenty of shocks and laughs, while leaving you in no doubt how dangerous dating can be as a woman. Cat Person has some interesting ideas – such as when an invisible twin Margot appears on-screen to voice her thoughts – but other than that it never really excites. Neither Braun nor Jones seem particularly into each other – and It’s puzzling why Margot even accepts Robert’s number to begin with. Much like a bad date, Cat Person feels like a missed opportunity.
Details
Director: Susanna Fogel
Starring: Emilia Jones, Nicholas Braun, Geraldine Viswanathan
At a time when it’s pleasingly fashionable to expose the awfulness of the mega-rich – see The White Lotus, Succession, The Menu – body horror master Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor) has taken things one step further than the competition. His new film Infinity Pool, which premiered this week at The Sundance Film Festival, is a riot of sex, murder and intoxication presented with an appropriate aural and sonic ferocity.
Acclaimed novelist James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) is enjoying a luxurious holiday in the fictional country of Li Tolqa (actually shot in Croatia) with wife Em (Dopesick‘s Cleopatra Coleman). He’s approached by flirty fan Gabi (Mia Goth), who invites the pair to dinner with her husband Alban. After dinner, and following a drive to a secluded beach, Gabi treats James to an off-menu, beachfront dessert that neither of their partners would approve of. Later, as they’re driving home, James accidentally runs over a farmer. The next morning he is arrested, and then charged by local police. Here is where it gets weird. To escape the death penalty, he can pay to watch a clone of himself executed by the farmer’s son in his place. He does so.
‘Infinity Pool’ comes to UK screens in March. CREDIT: Neon
The child’s repeated stabbing of the clone turns into a moment of horrified realisation for James. It causes him to engage in wild excesses with Gabi and her unhinged cronies including robbery and murder. There are no risks. They know that if they get caught, they can just make more clones to avoid punishment. Eventually, we start to wonder if it is indeed the doubles who are being killed, and not the originals themselves. The cloning procedure is purposefully vague, portrayed via a mind-searing burst of psychedelic colours, throbbing sounds and nudity.
Anyone familiar with Cronenberg’s work will probably already be on board but, clearly, his third film is not for the squeamish. If you are likely to be upset by a cum-shot closeup, slit throats or masked lunatics savagely killing people, then steer clear. If not, then sit back and enjoy another terrifying performance from newly anointed scream queen Mia Goth, star of modern classics X and Pearl. This time out she’s more chiller than killer, bouncing off Skarsgård’s more subtle work. How much longer this trend for satirising the excessively wealthy will last remains to be seen – powerful people don’t like being laughed at and are well-connected enough to decide what films get made and don’t. But if the work is as strong in content and quality as Infinity Pool, long may it continue.
Details
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Starring: Mia Goth, Alexander Skarsgård, Cleopatra Coleman
Everything Everywhere All at Once was the break-out independent film of 2022, a wild, hilarious hit about a dissatisfied Chinese-American couple (played by Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan) who run a laundromat and their put-upon daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu). When the couple have their business audited by difficult IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), they stumble into a world of parallel universes and increasingly outlandish adventure.
Written and directed by filmmaking duo Daniels (that’s Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert to you), the endlessly inventive comedy also tops our annual Films Of The Year list (voted for by Team NME) – beating out big-budget blockbusters such as Top Gun: Maverick, The Batman and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. We caught up with them on Zoom to deliver the good news…
Hey guys, you’ve come top of our Films Of The Year list! What’s your reaction?
Daniel Kwan: “It’s been a really good year for film, especially after the past few years where the pandemic made people funny about releases. We’ve been watching so many movies that we’ve fallen in love with, for so many different reasons. The fact people are putting us near the top of that list is so flattering. We might disagree with you, but it’s okay. We’re very grateful. Thank you. I can’t believe we got number one!”
Michelle Yeoh makes her action blockbuster comeback in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’. CREDIT: Alamy
Have you received much feedback about the film this year?
Daniel Scheinert: “Totally. So many people at Halloween would send us text messages, like, ‘I’m at a party, someone’s dressed up like your movie’ and text us photos of strangers who had dressed up.”
DK: “That’s a great measure of success: how many people went to Halloween dressed up as one of your characters? Sometimes people will tell us the stories of what happened after they left the theatre. ‘Oh, I was with my mum. And then on the drive home, we had an important conversation that we’d been needing to have for years’. Stuff like that knocks you back as a filmmaker, you really know there’s some power and worth to these stories. But then you also hear about people being like, “Oh, man, once the dildos came out, I saw three couples stand up [to leave].”
Why do you think the film has struck a nerve with people?
DS: “I think because, at its core, it’s about being overwhelmed and struggling to connect and communicate. We all just lived through this pandemic that made us all very overwhelmed, made it very hard to connect and communicate. We’re just so lucky that we made a piece of artwork people were in the mood for.
“I have one more answer. I think the movie is successful because it’s impossible to hate Ke Huy Quan or Michelle Yeoh. You can’t shit-talk the movie because you look like a real jerk – Ke and Michelle are just so good and sweet in it. I feel like they’re the secret weapon.”
(L-R) Daniel Scheinert, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jonathan Wang and Daniel Kwan at the Gotham Awards 2022. CREDIT: Alamy
Ke Huy Quan was best known for The Goonies and Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. Now he’s enjoying a renaissance thanks to your film…
DK: “One of the best decisions we made was casting Ke. He was perfect for the role, but it was also impossible to feel stressed out or angry around him – he was so happy to be on-set again. He was clearly nervous because it was the first time he had acted in a few decades. But then Jamie Lee Curtis came up to him at the end of the day and that gave him the energy to move through the rest of the shoot.”
How did you get Jamie Lee Curtis on board?
Daniel Kwan: “The secret to getting Jamie Lee Curtis is making sure that you’re making a movie with Michelle Yeoh. I don’t think she [even] had to read the script… She’s very curious, very playful. Everything she does, there’s no strategy behind it beyond what she feels is important in that moment. I think it was really important for Michelle to have an equal, you know, an equally iconic person.”
What can you tell us about your famous fans?
DS: “We heard that Barack Obama saw it but he hasn’t called me. Like, ‘come on, Barack. What are you doing?’“
DK: “We got the chance to spend more time with [Knives Out director] Rian Johnson, who was one of the first people to email us after the movie came out. That was amazing because Rian’s first movie, [2005 crime drama] Brick, was one of the first times I saw a film and thought that maybe I could be a filmmaker, just because he made it for $500,000 on his own.”
DS: “We also met Questlove and he said he’s been watching the movie over and over all year and buying it and sending it to his friends. He was like, “I probably bought 100 copies of your movie, to send to people to force them to watch.” It was mind-blowing.”
It’s been another killer year for those whose viewing tastes lean towards the grim and deadly, the macabre and menacing, the frenzied and bloody. Below we’ve picked a score of great scary movies from 2022 (so far). Read on for your full complement of werewolves, predators, evil children, toxic men, dangerous women and even some terrifying stuff that can’t be categorised…
Amulet
Amulet is about a homeless soldier fixing up a grotty house for a woman and her unseen but heard ill mother. It’s also about war crimes and guilt. It’s even about bonkers psychedelic body horror possession. Despite this, the styles meld intriguingly. Among a small cast, Alec Secăreanu, Carla Juri and Imelda Staunton excel.
Where to stream: BFI Player
Crimes of the Future
When the man who popularised body horror with Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly returns to matters of the flesh? We love to see it. Director David Cronenberg’s latest sees a performance artist (Viggo Mortensen) grow new organs and make a show of their removal. Gruesome, brainy thrills, with Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart on top form.
Where to stream: Prime Video (via Arrow Video at £4.99 per month after trial) or via BFI Player (£10 to rent)
Dashcam
The team behind no-budget pandemic smash Host – director Jed Shepherd with co-writers Rob Savage and Gemma Hurley – do it again. With action shot within cars driven by outrageous comedian Annie Hardy – playing a semi-fictional version of herself – it’s impressive how hilarious and terrifying a film can be made under such restrictions. Riotous.
Where to stream: Prime Video (then rent from £4.99)
Fall
Two young women climb a 2,000-foot decommissioned TV tower in the desert to help one get over the loss of her husband who fell from a mountain the year before and to raise the other’s online profile. Heart-stoppingly horrifying for acrophobic viewers and compelling for everyone else, this is a lean, tense survival feature.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Apple TV or Google Play (then rent from £13.99)
Fresh
Noa, played by Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones, goes on a bad date that takes the worst possible turn when she goes home with Steve (Sebastian Stan) in this meaty horror. Steve, actually named Brendan, kidnaps and drugs women before selling their flesh to satanists. Horrific and also the darkest, most grisly comedy.
Where to stream: Disney+
Halloween Ends
A slow-burn first 70 minutes mostly dedicated to the love story between local weirdo Corey Cunningham and Laurie Strode’s granddaughter Allyson gives way to a ferocious final act in what purports to be the last Halloween film. As Laurie, Jamie Lee Curtis is her usual pugnacious presence battling Michael Myers.
Where to stream: You can’t! See it in cinemas!
Hatching
Having discovered an unusual egg in the woods, 12-year-old gymnast Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) is keen to hide it from her fussy blogger mother. The egg hatches to reveal a bird-like creature that’s psychically connected to Alli and slowly takes on her appearance after killing a dog. Unsettling Finnish horror.
Where to stream: Not currently available in the UK, but keep an eye out!
Men
Ex Machina director Alex Garland shocked many with this gruesome folk horror. Men works as a horrifying portrait of grief and a satire of toxic masculinity and is led with typical aplomb by Jessie Buckley as a widowed woman looking for peace on a rural retreat. She finds only a sinister army of Rory Kinnears.
Where to stream: Prime Video (then rent from £4.49)
Nope
Alien abduction – or something far worse – on a rural California farm vexes siblings Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya in this sci-fi-tinged tale. An intriguing and often terrifying mix of shocks, laugh and mystery, Get Out and Us writer-director Jordan Peele makes it three bangers out of three with Nope.
Where to stream: Prime Video (then rent at £15.99)
Orphan: First Kill
A fiendish twist by way of a vicious familial secret make this Orphan prequel an unexpected delight. The first film’s basic set-up of a psychotic, murderous grown woman pretending to be a child is mined with similarly brutal results. Expect camp fun and satisfying kills.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Apple TV or Google Play (then rent from £13.99)
Prey
Who thought yet another entry in the Predator franchise could be not only watchable but one of the most exciting releases of the year? Prey sets our ugly alien antagonist on earth in 1719, where it comes up against Naru (Amber Midthunder), a fierce Comanche warrior. Breathless action, high-stakes tension and satisfying bloodletting abound.
Where to stream: Disney+
Scream
Remarkably the fifth film in the first post-modern horror franchise is the best since its first entry wowed viewers back in 1996. This clever slasher sees costumed killer Ghostface wreak terror on Woodsboro again with Sidney (Neve Campbell), Gale (Courtney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette) returning. Expect vicious kills and nifty shocks.
Where to stream: Paramount+
Smile
Therapist Dr Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) witnesses a bizarre, unexplainable patient death at work and soon believes she’ll be killed too, as the bodies pile up around her. It Follows and Final Destination fans will recognise the story but it’s told with skill and great jump scares.
Where to stream: Nowhere! Catch it in cinemas!
Speak No Evil
“Beware who you make friends with on holiday,” is the message of this sensational, if savage, Danish work. A sickening feeling of creeping, intensifying dread permeates the bulk of Speak No Evil before the final act includes scenes of biblical brutality which some might find unwatchable. Deliciously unpleasant.
Where to stream: Shudder
Studio 666
Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighter bandmates get more than they bargain for when they record their 10th album in a haunted mansion where a fictional ’90s frontman took his love of the occult too far and killed his bandmates and himself. It’s immense fun as nicest-man-in-rock Grohl turns evil searching for creative inspiration.
Where to stream: Google Play (then rent from £7.99)
The Black Phone
The Black Phone is an unsavoury beast, just like the Grabber, its chief villain. Based on a story written by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill about a masked serial-killer child abductor, this 1978-set chiller has smart observations on school life and Ethan Hawke playing against type as a very bad man indeed.
Where to stream: Prime Video (then rent from £4.99)
The Cursed
Boyd Holbrook from The Sandman and Narcos stars as a pathologist who wanders into a 19th century French town beset by a werewolf in this underrated yet atmospheric picture. Director Sean Ellis proved himself with thrilling crime hit Metro Manila and this time out masters a scarier but no less exciting genre.
Where to stream: Not currently available in the UK
The Innocents
Not to be confused with the ghostly 1961 classic of the same name, this Norwegian effort is about telepathic children causing mischief on a housing estate in Oslo. Directed by Eskil Vogt, The Worst Person In The World director Joachim Trier’s regular co-writer, this has a cold, creepy feel set to make you shiver.
Where to stream: Prime Video (then rent from £1.99)
The Northman
Robert Eggers’ spectacular viking epic is a mighty beast with an all-star cast including Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Björk. Based on Norse mythology – including some of the likely source material of Hamlet – it’s got all the blood and violence of a primo slasher film. Tremendous.
Where to stream: Prime Video or Google Play (then rent from £3.49)
X
In X, a group of young people hire a barn from an elderly couple in Texas to make a porno film. Mia Goth plays wannabe porn-star Maxine and the old woman, Pearl. Horror fans will love the references to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as will anyone up for bloody thrills. Another 70s-set stormer.
From Serial to The Tinder Swindler, true crime stories are big business. Rarely a day goes by without a friend or critic recommending a Netflix documentary mini-series or feature film about some ghastly murder and the lengths the villainous perpetrator went to cover it up. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood stars are as interested in these stories as we are and so here’s The Thing About Pam: a show Renée Zellweger wanted to make because she loved the podcast it was based on.
It’s 2011 and Pam Hupp (Renée Zellweger) is a married suburban mum in smalltown Missouri who describes herself as a “businesswoman”. One night, after she drives her friend Betsy Faria home to nearby Troy, Betsy’s husband Russ (Glenn Fleshler from Boardwalk Empire) finds his wife’s dead body on the floor and calls 911. Russ is arrested, tried and eventually, in 2013, convicted, while Pam becomes the beneficiary of Betsy’s life insurance policy (worth $150,000). Russ’s lawyer Joel Schwartz remains convinced of Russ’s innocence and fights for a retrial, finally getting one in 2015, where Russ is found innocent.
Renée Zellweger as the titular killer Karen. CREDIT: Paramount
While Russ is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, US TV show Dateline takes an increasing interest in the case and considers Pam’s potential involvement in Betsy’s murder, surely a factor in Pam’s baffling attempt to frame mentally and physically handicapped Louis Gumpenberger in 2016 – by enticing him into her house, murdering him and trying to make it appear as if he was Betsy’s killer. All that aside, she appears to have had a major part in the death of her mother Shirley Neumann, who fell to her death from a balcony after a visit from Pam.
Zellweger is a brilliant actress, deserving of the Oscars she won for Judy in 2020 and Cold Mountain in 2004. She’s also excellent here as the faux-friendly, venomous Pam. She convinces with each ugly glance, preening movement and entitled moan, even if there’s an argument that a bigger woman may have been better cast in the role, rather than Zellweger in a fat suit. Among a fine supporting cast, Duhamel and Judy Greer (Halloween Kills) as devious District Attorney Leah Askey are the highlights.
The Thing About Pam is a fascinating story, for sure, but when it’s already been covered extensively on TV and a pod, why retell it so soon? Let’s assume there’s a huge amount of people who haven’t heard of Hupp but are keen on new true crime shows. In which case, it may be of interest.
‘The Thing About Pam’ is streaming now on Paramount+
From Serial to The Tinder Swindler, true crime stories are big business. Rarely a day goes by without a friend or critic recommending a Netflix documentary mini-series or feature film about some ghastly murder and the lengths the villainous perpetrator went to cover it up. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood stars are as interested in these stories as we are and so here’s The Thing About Pam: a show Renée Zellweger wanted to make because she loved the podcast it was based on.
It’s 2011 and Pam Hupp (Renée Zellweger) is a married suburban mum in smalltown Missouri who describes herself as a “businesswoman”. One night, after she drives her friend Betsy Faria home to nearby Troy, Betsy’s husband Russ (Glenn Fleshler from Boardwalk Empire) finds his wife’s dead body on the floor and calls 911. Russ is arrested, tried and eventually, in 2013, convicted, while Pam becomes the beneficiary of Betsy’s life insurance policy (worth $150,000). Russ’s lawyer Joel Schwartz remains convinced of Russ’s innocence and fights for a retrial, finally getting one in 2015, where Russ is found innocent.
Renée Zellweger as the titular killer Karen. CREDIT: Paramount
While Russ is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, US TV show Dateline takes an increasing interest in the case and considers Pam’s potential involvement in Betsy’s murder, surely a factor in Pam’s baffling attempt to frame mentally and physically handicapped Louis Gumpenberger in 2016 – by enticing him into her house, murdering him and trying to make it appear as if he was Betsy’s killer. All that aside, she appears to have had a major part in the death of her mother Shirley Neumann, who fell to her death from a balcony after a visit from Pam.
Zellweger is a brilliant actress, deserving of the Oscars she won for Judy in 2020 and Cold Mountain in 2004. She’s also excellent here as the faux-friendly, venomous Pam. She convinces with each ugly glance, preening movement and entitled moan, even if there’s an argument that a bigger woman may have been better cast in the role, rather than Zellweger in a fat suit. Among a fine supporting cast, Duhamel and Judy Greer (Halloween Kills) as devious District Attorney Leah Askey are the highlights.
The Thing About Pam is a fascinating story, for sure, but when it’s already been covered extensively on TV and a pod, why retell it so soon? Let’s assume there’s a huge amount of people who haven’t heard of Hupp but are keen on new true crime shows. In which case, it may be of interest.
‘The Thing About Pam’ is streaming now on Paramount+
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