Charlie Says is a 2018 American biographical drama film directed by Mary Harron and starring Matt Smith as infamous killer Charles Manson.
Three young women (Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins) were sentenced to death for the infamous Manson murders. Their sentences became life imprisonment when the death penalty was lifted in California. One young graduate student was sent in to teach them. Through her, we witness their transformations as they face the reality of their horrific crimes.
Charlie Says may not reach deep enough into the horrors that birthed the Manson Family but director Mary Haron has found a surprisingly relevant way to revisit the grisly events. Through the eyes of the Manson women. Working with material that could have easily been sensationalized or exploited, Harron, for the most part, manages to infuse dignity into a work whose story and certainly toxic characters don't deserve any. While Charlie Says plays it rather safe, it's nevertheless an intermittently absorbing and unexpected angle from which to try to comprehend this incomprehensibly tragic chapter in American history. For all the screen-time Matt Smith's Charles Manson gets, this film truly belongs to the female leads - all three giving terrific performances which I found shined in comparison to Smith's portrayal of Manson.
