My Favorite Murder · Steubenville · So Much Manson
Plus: Football Leaks, When They See Us, and the doc that started it all.
the true crime that's worth your time
The New Yorker’s latest issue has a corker of a piece by Sam Wright on corruption in European fútbol, and the semi-obsessive whistle-blower who outed much of it on the Football Leaks blog. It’s chock-full of crime (payola, money-laundering, hacking) and you don’t need to know anything about footie to enjoy it -- I don’t, and I did. It’s worth burning one of your monthly freebies on the New Yorker site to read it, and if you’ve already run through yours for May, just bookmark it until tomorrow. -- SDB
PBS will kick off its 32nd season of POV with an investigation into the Steubenville rape case. The makers of the documentary, called Roll Red Roll, characterize it as a “true crime thriller.” There’s something about calling a recent rape a “thriller” that makes me feel a little itchy, but I also understand that trying to market your movie in this increasingly-packed field is no easy matter.
Speaking of marketing, the city of Steubenville, Ohio, might want to consider some reputation management -- a Google of the word “Steubenville” got me the Wikipedia entry on its notorious sexual assault case as its first result. Yeah, I search for a lot of legal cases, but I look up a load of other things, too, so I don’t think that’s a purely behavior-based result. ANYWAY. The 2012 case was remarkable not just because of its vileness -- a female high school student rendered incapable of consent by alcohol whose gang assault was documented by social media -- but because of an alleged coverup due to the convicted assailants’ role on the school’s football team. (The NYT’s coverage of the case is preceptively written, I highly recommend it.)
Though Roll Red Roll hit the festival circuit last year, its POV appearance will mark its broadcast debut. It’s the feature debut for director Nancy Schwartzman, who also created the Circle of 6 violence-prevention app. It’s won a slew of awards, was described by the Times as “tough but essential,” and Sarah reviewed it in a Blotter Brief here. All that to say, it’s probably a good idea to nudge your DVR to catch its premiere at 10 p.m. on June 17. -- EB
Everyone who isn’t making a Manson-related movie please raise your hand. Hello? Anyone? Sarah and I were extremely worried that voters in our poll on a fantasy season of American Crime Story would choose the Manson family murders as what we’d have to speculatively cast. (God bless you, JonBenét.) It seems like we’re seeing a bit of a Manson moment, with at least four different iterations to contend with. In addition to Charlie Says (that’s the Dr Who is Manson one) and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (that’s Tarantino’s take) we have two more films focused on Sharon Tate.
Released in April, Hilary Duff-starrer The Haunting of Sharon Tate was absolutely savaged by critics, and once I tell you its thesis you might see why: In this version of the slain actress’s story, she predicted her death, right down to the details of the attack. Variety called it “a case of pure, unadulterated cheeseball exploitation.” I think you can safely pass.
Then there’s Tate, which stars Kate Bosworth in the title role (here’s a photo of her in character). Tate’s sister Debra is reportedly producing the film, and Michael Polish is directing. The movie was announced last March, but it’s unclear if or when it will be distributed to the masses. -- EB
The folks from My Favorite Murder are on a press tour in support of their new book. The joint memoir from hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark contains “very little murder,” the AV Club says. In interview after interview the pair have stressed that the book is a collection of essays about self-respect and self-care. If you like Kilgariff and Hardstark as people and want to hear more from them, this book might be worth checking out, but if you’re looking for crime, look elsewhere. -- EB
Netflix’s adaptation of the Central Park Five case dropped today. The fictionalized take on the case is called When They See Us, and was produced by Ava DuVernay. Its four episodes are already getting raves from the NYT and Washington Post, with the latter saying that the show borrows “the look of true-crime dramas while discarding the genre’s usual tropes.” If you’re going to pick a show to binge this weekend, this is it
When They See Us is also the focus of next week’s The Blotter Presents podcast (on which writer Piper Weiss will guest). Subscribe now to catch their discussion.
And when you’re done with When They See Us, we suggest you turn to The Central Park Five, Sarah Burns and David McMahon’s look at the (wrongful, a court ruled in 2002) conviction and incarceration of Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Kharey Wise. The doc is available on Amazon Prime Video, and if you want to go even deeper with the story, here’s a ten-clip series on the aftereffects of the film. -- EB
Monday, on Best Evidence: Sarah has a review of A Dangerous Son, we’re both bracing for Murder On Birchleaf Drive, and more. See you then, have a great weekend!
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