Christine

I'm going to write this review as if you had not heard the sensational and tragic story of Christine Chubbuck. If you are unfamiliar with Christine's story then I suggest you do not read into it before seeing this film. I shall reveal very little of it here.

The story concerns the real life story of Christine Chubbuck, a reporter in Florida in the 1970s. As an opportunity opens up at a bigger news station, Christine finds herself attempting to adopt the station manager's sensationalist approach to the news. The film details her struggle with depression and it's impact on her personal life and work.

The depression is seen as both the result and cause of Christine 's difficulty in connecting with others. Many characters throughout the film reach out to her only for her to pull away. The cyclical nature of depression is all too familiar but what's interesting here is that each character who reaches out to Christine is well meaning but insist on viewing her depression in their own way instead of actually speaking with Christine.

At one point Christine screams "why is no one listening to me?!" and it's true. No one listens to Christine. Her mother is certain that she just needs a man. The anchor on her news show is certain she just needs therapy. Her friend at the station is certain that she just needs ice cream. Everyone is so quick to offer possible remedies and solutions that Christine is actually overlooked.

This is exemplified in the "Yes, but" game as seen in the trailer for the film. In the game the speaker tells the listener their problems. The listener then suggests a solution to which the speaker replies "yes, but" and points out the issues with that solution. The idea may be to get to the heart of the speaker's problems or for them to simply run out of problems and start thinking about solutions but the effect is clear. The issues and concerns of the speaker are being dismissed, one by one. Often with just a few words.

This portrayal of the isolating effects of depression is very affecting. We see Christine attempt to bury herself in work, buying a radio scanner to listen in on police frequencies in an attempt to find the gruesome story she needs to gain recognition. As we see her hunched over her notepad listening to two police officers brag about sexual conquests, we can see the cracks starting to appear.

The entire film hinges on Rebecca Hall's ability to play a character who is simultaneously spiralling out of control and deeply sympathetic and fortunately she accomplishes this extremely well. She is magnetic to watch even as she shrinks into the backgrounds of the scenes in which Christine finds herself. Her awkwardness and frustration are told through tiny movements and gestures.

The film takes some liberties with the real life of Christine Chubbuck. Some people on her life have been omitted and some incidents have been made to occur later than they actually did for dramatic effect. However if you walk into this film without knowing how Christine's story ended then I am sure you will be as shocked as the world was back in 1975 and hopefully you will reflect on how you personally react to depression, in yourself and others. If you're anything like me you will emerge from the cinema desperate to know more about this enigmatic and tragic young woman.

The film is a very tense and uncomfortable slow burn with some surprisingly funny moments. Performances are excellent all round but this really is Hall's show and is an excellent showcase for her talents as a screen presence.

I have a confession to make. I saw this during the Halloween period and wanted to watch the classic horror movie Christine from 1983. Instead I saw this film and by serendipitous good luck came across a powerful and sad drama that made me cry (to confuse matters this drama is set in the late 70s and is filmed with a filter to make it feel authentic. When a possessed car did not turn up around 20 minutes in, I knew then it was a different film!)

This is a powerful film because it tackles depression and lost hope but does not dwell in the melancholy of the situation. The ending is tragic and it dawned on me that Christine Chubbuck death was probably the provenance for the story in Network which followed 2 years later.

Rebecca Hall is supported by a wealth of talent and the acting is excellent from everyone. It felt so real, like watching a fly on the wall drama.

I am glad I saw this film because it reminded me that people (and I include myself) may look OK on the outside, but they could be screaming in the inside. A lot of dramas avoid mental health and well being because in many quarters it is still considered to be taboo, but more films like this need to me made and watched.

Christine (2016/I) was directed by Antonio Campos. Rebecca Hall plays Christine Chubbuck, a TV reporter in Sarasota, Florida. This is a fictionalized biography of Ms. Chubbuck. If you check Wikipedia, you'll know that much of what we see actually happened.

Christine Chubbuck was a person with depression, or possibly bipolar illness. She was well educated and financially comfortable, but her interpersonal life was in shambles. In the film, her behavior was strange and sometimes bizarre. People keep asking her, "Are you OK?" She always assures them that she's OK, and they believe her. Even if they don't fully believe her, they have their own problems, and they move on to other matters.

Rebecca Hall is an excellent actor. She resembles Christine Chubbuck physically. (That's probably one of the reasons she got the part.) She makes us believe in Christine and her problems, which is no easy task. (People who don't have mental illness find it hard to fake.)

This is a difficult movie to watch, but I felt that the acting was strong, and the message was important. I wish the producers had rolled a statement before the credits saying, "If you, or someone you know, feels and acts like Christine, call this hotline."

We saw the movie at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester NY. It will work very well on the small screen.

Christine, one of the best films I've seen this year, might appear at first to be about a feminist issue - set in 1974 at a small TV station in Sarasota, Florida, a woman named Christine Lubbock (Rebecca Hall) has to contend with her male co-workers and male boss, and where they get preferential treatment (at least seemingly, ultimately) despite being told by her own boss she's the smartest on there - but it's strongest as a depiction of mental illness. This is the subject that actually makes for more compelling subject matter, though it is harsher to see depicted; I cringe watching this film, it's uncomfortable to watch, and despite/because of this it's a brilliant depiction of a bi-polar person and the interior struggle of her life.

There are two fronts this film is successful. The first is the technical aspect. This looks, feels, acted, sounds like a movie from the period in the 70's (you know, back when American cinema was king as far as getting deeper into character and mood and technique and showing a reality moviegoers hadn't been exposed to much before outside of foreign cinema) with Campos and his DP using zoom lenses and shots that linger maybe just a little too long, and audio that sometimes (no, often times) can put us into the state of mind of the character: when Christine is laser-focused, nothing else can detract from her. When she is wary, she may hear the sounds outside that make her a little distracted (there's one scene between Christine and George, played by Michael C Hall, in a car that made me see/hear this). Not to mention the clothes, the music (so much bad 70's pop on the precipice of disco), and how people talked to one another.

The other thing that makes it authentic is how Christine and everyone talks, The dialog here is all about showing the realism of the TV station, and finding the nuance and what surrounds this woman who is very smart. It could be said she has a touch of Asperger's along with the bi-polar, if one wanted to go into a diagnosing-on-the-couch approach. But that takes away from what Campos and Rebecca Hall accomplish with this character. One may be reminded of Nightcrawler from two years ago, also about an ambitious being in the world of news (also, one should say, with a mental or personality disorder of some kind, and access to a police radio for the latest scoop), only while Gyllenhall in that film was a pure sociopath and no lack of communicating what he thinks/feels/sees, Christine's problems are an inability to come out with something all the time.

To be sure she's surrounded by the kind of news culture that has only multiplied exponentially over the past four decades; "If it bleeds, it leads," Christine's boss says, to which Christine reminds him that's a BS catch-phrase. No matter: the pressure is on to get things that people want to see, that brings ratings, and the same "human interest" stories about locals with Strawberry farms or chicken coops won't cut it. But what drew me in to this film was how potent the point of view was for Christine in this world. It's hinted at (or flat out spoken) that she had some previous anxiety/personality/bi-polar disorder issues back in Boston where she used to work, and now being in Sarasota isn't being much of an improvement. So among this news team, where she tries to find her own path and is up against resistance (some understandable, some not), and with friends (Maria Dizza as Jean is as good a supporting performance as from Michael C Hall, and he's really great here), she makes her own problems but never in a way that makes her unsympathetic.

Christine is closer if anything to Taxi Driver as far as a story of someone on the edge of an existence, and it's all the more painful because of what Christine is able and ready to do, her talents and intuition and in her way mix of innocence and cynicism (though mostly disbelief) at the world around her, which includes her own pot-smoking hippie mother. Hall taps into the ball of contradictions in this character, and I was often on the edge of my seat like this was the most intense thriller in years.

And it's in fact all based on a true story; I had known a couple of the broad strokes of the story, the climax in particular, and I almost wish I hadn't. I won't mention what happens to the sometimes awkward, full articulate but "not easy to approach" (as George says to her at one point) Christine by the end of her story, but even knowing it the filmmakers and Hall draw us in so inexorably to her interior and exterior struggles through such precise and heartbreaking storytelling that I can't shake the feeling this will be with me for a while.

Most people who have ever heard of Christine Chubbuck already know how her story ends; She's been attributed to glimpsing into the future of television journalism with her final statement, the story turning into a morbid urban legend in the over forty years since the incident occurred. I admit, the first time I heard the story almost ten years ago, it sounded so bizarre, I almost couldn't believe it.

Christine sets out to humanize Christine Chubbuck, and elicit empathy from an audience that might already see her as someone who is monstrous. Yet, somehow, the movie accomplishes it's goal, giving her humanity that was lost in the headlines. Much of that credit is due to Rebecca Hall who transformed herself completely, throwing herself into the role so thoroughly that it's almost frightening.

The first time we see Christine she is filming herself doing a mock interview, and then later on, we see Christine examining every little gesture, picking herself apart in order to remake herself into something better to gain that elusive feeling of perfection, yet no matter how many times she's assured by Jean Reed (Maria Dizzia), the only person at WZRB that could probably be considered a friend, there's still that look of dissatisfaction with herself etched on her face.

It's been written that Christine Chubbuck used to give puppet shows to mentally challenged children so the screenwriter incorporated that into the film, but it's utilized as little glimpses of what she's thinking: 'Be Bold, Be Brave' she tells them, a fairly innocuous phrase, but for the viewer who knows what's to come later on, it has chilling connotations.

The moment that made Christine Chubbuck famous is shown in all of it's brutal and devastating impact. The film even shows her mother watching as it all unfolds. I don't know if Christine Chubbuck's mother, Peg, was actually watching the day Christine did what she did, but the possibility of that actually occurring, is heartbreaking.

It's a testament to the filmmakers that, though Christine can often come across as incredibly difficult and unlikable, the audience still has a great deal of empathy for her. Yes, she has fights with her boss about 'blood and guts' television, and her mother about the state of her life, but it's carefully contrasted with moments of quiet desperation, like the sequence when the head news anchor, George (Michael C. Hall), takes her to a transactional analysis meeting where they play a game of 'Yes, but…" and Christine slowly reveals the things that she feels make her life impossible to live.

Overall, Christine is a portrait of a woman desperately trying to make something of herself but because of a chemical imbalance, she can't seem to sync with the people and world around her. Anchored by Rebecca Hall who gives an Oscar-worthy turn, Christine is also supported by an excellent supporting cast (Maria Dizzia and J. Smith Cameron in particular), strong direction and an incisive script. Highly recommended.