Christine (2016)

Redundant and unnecessary.

People are voting emotionally.

Absolutely brilliant

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

By this retelling of this true story it was important there was sensitivity and dignity. Also, it was important to look at different themes - pain of humiliation, career crisis, and bipolar disorder - not just a portrayal of a march to death. Christine is a gripping drama with an impeccable central performance from Rebecca Hall who helps us understand newscaster Chubbuck's psychological collapse and the indignities weathered by a woman in a 1970s news station - she becomes the manifestation of the lack of hope.

There is a scene in 'Christine' where Christine Chubbuck's boss Michael at the news station shows her a news segment of a rival news network revolving around fat people. In response, she voiced her refusal to get involved with anything like that because to her, it's 'exploitative'. This is ironic because whenever there's a film about a tragedy that happened to real life ordinary characters in the past, there is always the risk that the film might veer into exploitative territories. Thankfully, 'Christine' stays respectful to its central character. I don't know much about the real Christine Chubbuck, so I can only comment on the Christine Chubbuck that is presented in the film. The Christine in the film feels like a real, complicated and three-dimensional character. She is clearly flawed, but the director remains sensitive in his treatment of her in the film.The period setting of 1970s America plays a thematic and contextual role in the film. This is post-Watergate America, one can sense the desperation, cynicism and the restlessness of the era. One can also feel that Christine Chubbuck is a woman of the new age who believes in the Feminist movement and the Women's Liberation movement. She is presented as a character who is on one hand plagued by acute loneliness, but one the other hand it is suggested that she is someone who deliberately blocks people out of her lives and doesn't open up to anyone. This resistance to having a meaningful connection with others or her inability to open up to anyone properly could be down to the fact that as a strong independent feminist woman working in the male dominated industry of journalism, she feels voicing her insecurities and making herself look vulnerable will make her look weak. The film does well to show how the confluence of a number of factors like loneliness, a frictional relationship with your parents, a directionless job,etc. can lead to an inescapable feeling of depression. Rebecca Hall pretty much single-handedly carries the film. It's a comprehensive performance where she uses her physicality, her eyes, her voice and everything at her disposal to create this complicated character on screen.But the film gets hampered a bit due to some of the writing. There are scenes where the dialogue becomes far too flowery which contradicts the matter-of-fact like dialogue of the other scenes. There are directorial choices here and there which also felt too heavy-handed. An example of this will be the very first scene of the film where we see a big carton with the word 'FRAGILE' written on it being inserted in the room at the background while we see Christine in the foreground.It's not a perfect film, but at least the director gets tricky job of the treatment of his central character right.

Christine (no relation to the Stephen King Christine) is an uncomfortable watch.There's nothing grisly, seedy or terrifying but Antonio Campos's film presents such a realistic and unquestionably bleak portrait of a rapidly deteriorating human being, brought down to her lowest ebb through unrealistic expectations and dreams, that it makes for eye squinting and tough viewing, in this retelling of real life news reporter/journalist Christine Chubbuck.There may be many that know of Chubbuck's story but for the sake of those that don't, Campos's film delves into the final months of Chubbuck's life as her fractured ego and increasingly erratic behaviour towards her work, co-workers such as Maria Dizzia's good hearted colleague Jean, Tracy Lett's tough station boss Michael or Michael C. Hall's potential love interest and news anchor George and genuine everyday life threatens to implode at any moment and when that moment comes, it ends up being one of the most shocking and sad moments in television history.Chubbuck isn't at all an easy person to relate or warm to. She's quick to wrath, stubborn beyond reasoning, cold and self-centred but she's also clearly a person that wasn't in a sane state of mind and nailing this tricky business is Rebecca Hall who delivers a career best turn as the doomed figure.A for some reason long-standing member of Hollywood's underrated field, Hall has over a number of years performed strongly in a large collection of big budgeted and smaller scale pictures but Chubbuck gives her a chance to really show her acting chops.In almost every frame of the film, Hall is never less than captivating, even though Chubbuck is herself equally frustrating and it's likely had this film gained more traction in the mainstream media, Hall would've been a worthy player in awards season attention.From big moments through to small subtle character traits Hall embodies this lost soul and is the best thing about the sometimes monotonously paced film and she's that good that many of the films side characters including those played by Michael C. Hall and Dizzia feel a little underwhelming, with Michael C. Hall in particular once again finding himself in a role that is below his range and it feels as though the highs of early Dexter are still a ways off from being recaptured in feature length roles.Final Say – Capturing the time and place of early 1970's America well, Christine is a solid if unremarkable drama that's filled to overflowing with foreboding, bleakness and disappointment, making it not for everyone but harbouring a noteworthy performance from Rebecca Hall. Christine is a tough slog but one that's worth tuning in for.3 hand puppet shows out of 5

Christine. Young woman working as a news reporter craving for promotion. Underestimated, stressed, hardly socializing, drowning in swampiest places of her life as the movie progresses. Heavy and hard movie that is made pretty well over all in the style of early 80's with its heavy and dense mood that is going from bad to worse.