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True Story | 2015 | R | - 5.6.5

A New York Times reporter (Jonah Hill) loses his job after one of his stories proves suspect. He struggles to find another job and becomes aware of a multiple murder case that he pursues tirelessly. Also with James Franco, Felicity Jones, , Ethan Suplee, Genevieve Angelson, Gretchen Mol and Maria Dizzia. Directed by Rupert Goold. [1:40]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A photograph of a nude dead woman is seen and her bare breasts, shoulders, side, hip and legs are seen.
 A man seduces a woman while touring a church and we see them in a hotel room; the woman is shown nude and lying face down on a bed (we see her bare shoulders and back and sex is implied). A woman is shown sitting in a bathtub and the tops of her shoulders are visible briefly. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage, bare shoulders and bare back.
 A man asks another man, "Why did you hook up with that German girl?"

VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - We see a man carrying a young child with a weighted sack tied to his feet to the railing of a bridge and the man drops the child into the water below (we hear a splash and see that another young child is watching from inside a car).
 A photo of a nude, dead woman is shown stuffed into a suitcase and we hear that she underwent a brutal attack and that her neck was broken to get her into the suitcase (we see that her head is twisted unnaturally). We see photographs of a dead woman (her flesh is tinged blue and gray). We see photographs of dead children and their flesh is discolored after having been in water; we also hear that the facial capillaries of one child burst, indicating that she was still alive when thrown into a body of water in a suitcase.
 We see a young girl lying motionless (presumably dead) in a suitcase as someone zips it closed; we then see the suitcase being tossed into a body of water. We see a suitcase on a morgue table as a man unzips it and looks alarmed at what he sees (we do not see what's inside). We see a nude woman lying face down on a bed in a hotel room and it is implied that a man in the room has killed her (we do not see blood or injuries).
 A man punches a wall three times and screams. A man hits a glass divider in frustration.
 We hear that a man is accused of killing his wife and children. A woman describes a man finding his wife with a lover and that he stabbed the wife many times before shooting the lover in the head; he then beat his infant son against his crib until he broke his skull. A man describes strangling his wife and that he put his hand over his baby's neck and squeezed until he felt the life leave her body. A man describes finding his young daughter dead. A man describes his wife hitting him in a couple of scenes. A man interviews several young men about being beaten by their plantation boss and asks, "Is it bad. Does he bleed?"; we hear that one young man's parents are dead. A man describes finding his wife straddling their young daughter on the bed (presumably killing the child).
 An old book has a picture in it that depicts someone large eating someone smaller and we see two legs sticking out of its mouth (no blood). We see a drawing of what looks like a family gathered around a grave. We see a drawing of what looks like a screaming face with smaller faces on the fingertips of a hand held up.
 A man is shown wearing prison attire and handcuffed while going to an interview room; he is then un-cuffed and speaks with another man in the room (this happens in several scenes).
 A man has an asthma attack and coughs before puffing on an inhaler (he recovers).

LANGUAGE 5 - About 9 F-words and its derivatives, 5 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (child killer, pariah, stupid, nobody, liar, narcissist, sick), 1 religious exclamation (God Willing).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man uses an inhaler a few times during asthma attacks. We see several empty beer cans on a table in a newspaper office where men are playing poker.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Reporting, falsifying research, truth, identity, Jehovah's Witnesses, shame, losing dignity, loyalty, lying, guilt, innocence, friendship, mistrial, death penalty, betrayal.

MESSAGE - Sometimes it's hard to see the truth.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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