The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

Christine

Christine | Movie review
23 January 2017
Tess Colley
Avatar
Tess Colley
23 January 2017

Movie and show review

Tess Colley

Christine

★★★★★

Release date

27th January 2017

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

The name Christine Chubbuck won’t mean much to many people. However, perhaps the story of a television journalist who committed suicide on live TV will ring a few bells. In Antonio Campos’s latest biographical feature, the events, the people and the depression that led Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) to her final moment are compellingly laid out on screen, with the actress – so often relegated to supporting roles in the past – giving the performance of a lifetime that could catapult her career to the next level.

Chubbuck is a hard-working journalist, committed to her own brand of issue-driven journalism, who struggles when her station manager (Tracy Letts) tells her she needs to bring in more sensationalist, crisis-driven stories if she wants to progress. She is ambitious and desperate to succeed, but can be difficult to work with thanks to her perfectionism and depressive tendencies, which close her off to those around her. For all that, she is not unlikeable, and Craig Shilowich’s script casts a sympathetic light on a woman who, above all, cannot sit comfortably in her own skin. The film is a character study, but not one that gives a neat explanation of what led Chubbuck to do what she did. Viewers may be left thinking, But why did she do it? Indeed, the steps that transform the protagonist from troubled woman into a notorious moment in TV history are not made explicit through dialogue, but are suggested at through Hall’s ability to physically embody opaque complexity. Campos and Shilowich do not seem to want audiences to understand Chubbuck, or to give the impression that such a thing would be possible – and it’s unsettling.

The supporting cast are strong too: Michael C Hall looks every part the 1970s American man as “Gorgeous George” the TV anchorman, and Maria Dizzia is a welcome calming reprieve as Jean, Christine’s friend and colleague. Stylistically, 1974 is superbly evoked through the colour scheme and the recreation of newsrooms as they were is done well, where film reels were spliced by hand and everything was just a little less slick than it is today.

Christine is a thoughtful piece of cinema, and Rebecca Hall’s performance is most certainly worth seeing. There are moments of humour, as Chubbuck is primarily written as a human who can’t quite work out how to be human. Where her story ends is sobering, and Campos offers no easy answers; this will frustrate some, but it’s an honest depiction, and one that will stay with you once the credits end.

★★★★★

Tess Colley

Christine is released in selected cinemas on 27th January 2017.

Watch the trailer for Christine here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Fadia’s Tree

Marissa Khaos
Read More

What Josiah Saw

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Luck

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Maisie

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Bullet Train

★★★★★
Matthew McMillan
Read More

Thirteen Lives

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Hit the Road

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Fire of Love

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Death of a Ladies’ Man

★★★★★
Mae Trumata
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Tess Colley

Christine

★★★★★

Release date

27th January 2017

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Camden Fringe 2022: Rome 3000 (Julius Caesar) at Canal Cafe Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “The show makes you question, think about things and look into yourself. It speaks to you”: Tom Sturridge and Vivienne Acheampong on The Sandman
    Cinema & Tv
  • “Theatre is totally unique… there’s simply nothing else quite like it”: An interview with Sir Howard Panter as the new cast of Jersey Boys opens at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • All of Us at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Sandman
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • South Facing Festival: Jungle bring their signature neo-funk to Saturday night
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “Everything that’s happened to me has brought me here”: David Leitch on Bullet Train and working with Brad Pitt
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

The White King | Movie review
Denial | Movie review