Still Photographer, Jonny Cournoyer.
We all know someone like Christine Chubbuck. Reserved, deadpan, not a lot of friends. We don’t think much about these people, until they do what Christine did.
Based on the true story of a news anchor who committed suicide on live television, director Antonio Campos’ new film, “Christine,” transports us back to 1974 and follows its title character at her job at WXLT-TV, a cable TV news station in Sarasota, Fla.
Christine (Rebecca Hall) has high hopes for her career. She loves the work she does, focusing on the smaller stories that let you get to know the community. But her boss, Michael (Tracy Letts), wants the station to focus on grittier, juicier stories. “If it bleeds, it leads,” he says, using the phrase he heard at a recent conference.
Christine is not what you would call approachable. She has few friends at the station. She keeps an amiable but peripheral relationship with Jean (Maria Dizzia), her camerawoman, and occasionally fumbles through conversations with her longtime crush, George (Michael C. Hall). Outside of work, her only friend is her mother (J. Smith Cameron), with whom she lives since she started having her “moods” a while back.
The lack of social stimulation is, she thinks, probably why she’s having so much pain in her abdomen—it’s stress. Stress is starting to weigh down on Christine. And, when station manager Bob Anderson (John Collum) decides to visit to stake out the “local talent” for a job opening in Baltimore, it’s just one more bean to tip the scale.
The plot that follows is a fascinating analysis of a person with depression. Campos does a great job of drawing the life out of this TV personality, fleshing out the story to get us deeper into Christine’s mind. And, while Campos perfectly orchestrates the rising tension (with a particularly heartbreaking group-therapy scene in which she finally voices her problems), Hall does a fantastic job of capturing the audience’s heart. She steals the show, simultaneously bringing tenderness and desperation to her character—and an emotional depth beyond any of her other performances.
This is a film you won’t want to miss. “Christine” starts at Midtown Cinema on Nov. 18.
Midtown Cinema – November Special Events
The Late Shift with Zeroday
“Aliens” (1986)
Saturday, Nov. 5, 10:30 p.m.
National Theatre Live presents
“Threepenny Opera”
Sunday, Nov. 6, 6 p.m.
“Hamlet” with Benedict Cumberbatch
Wednesday, Nov. 16, 6 p.m.
Sunday Nov. 19, 2 p.m.
Down in Front! comedy riffing
“Plan 9 from Outer Space” (1959)
Friday, Nov. 11, 9:30 p.m.
Classic Film Series
“War of the Worlds” (1953)
Sunday, Nov. 13, 6 p.m.
3rd in the Burg $3 Movie
“Galaxy Quest” (1999)
Friday, Nov. 18, 9:30 p.m.
Faulkner Honda Family Film Series
“Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie” (1995)
Saturday, Nov. 19, noon
Sunday, Nov. 20, 2 p.m.
Author: Sammi Leigh Melville
