based on a true story Archives - The Spool | The Spool

based on a true story Archives - The Spool

The Vanishing Triangle explores troubling Irish history without exploitation

By: Tim Stevens

The Sundance Now drama’s empathy elevates it above more typical offerings in the genre even as its ending disappoints.

Killer Looks: on Hollywood’s curious true crime casting decisions

Max’s latest docudrama is just one of many times real-life killers have been given attractive makeovers for TV

Boston Strangler is a solid but standard true crime drama

By: Gena Radcliffe

Keira Knightley heads a capable cast as the real-life reporter who defied sexism to break one of the biggest crime stories of the 60s

Unraveling pop-culture one thread at a time

The Spool is an irreverent, informative source for film and television coverage, focused on diverse, thoughtful opinions that seek out a greater understanding of the media we love.

Jesus Revolution turns spiritual rapture into a chore

The latest faith-based film looks & sounds great, but has the dramatic weight of a Time-Life music infomercial.

The Good Nurse twists an unexpected friendship into a haunting tale of murder

By: Diego Peralta

Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain shine in a haunting take on the ways medical trust can be abused.

Master of Light paints a portrait of a little known artist

By: Michael Frank

Rosa Ruth Boesten directs a moving documentary about George Anthony Morton, who paints his way through a troubled mind & past.

After The Vow Part II, take a deeper dive into the eerie world of cults

If Keith Raniere and the story of NXIVM didn’t creep you out enough, give some of these cult related documentaries a try.

Blonde is haunting, repellent & heartbreaking all at once

By: Gena Radcliffe

Though Andrew Dominik's sort-of-biopic is harsh & harrowing, you won’t forget Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, doomed from the very start.

The Woman King brings back the old-fashioned historical epic with style

By: Shannon Campe

Viola Davis heads an excellent cast in Gina Prince-Bythewood's exhilarating action movie.

Children of the Underground profiles a complicated leader in the fight against child sexual abuse

By: Marshall Estes

FX's five part documentary about a controversial organization fighting an often ineffective justice system works more often than it doesn't.

I Love My Dad’s stranger-than-fiction tale succeeds through sheer will

By: Michael Frank

James Morosini enlists the great Patton Oswalt to bring the time his own dad catfished him to the silver screen.

Elvis is a colorful, soulful & frenetic feast for the eyes

By: Michael Guarnieri

Baz Luhrmann's biopic of the King is as garish and over the top as you'd expect, but has a heart thanks to Austin Butler

Candy is a well-crafted story of murder & desperate housewives

By: Gena Radcliffe

Jessica Biel & Melanie Lynskey are excellent in Hulu’s docudrama about a bizarre 1980 murder in smalltown Texas

Under the Banner of Heaven chillingly depicts murder in the name of faith

By: Gena Radcliffe

FX adapts Jon Krakauer’s best selling true story about a brutal crime tied to the Mormon church

There’s no thing in The Thing About Pam

By: B.L. Panther

Eschewing incisiveness for post-podcast play, The Thing About Pam struggles to say anything.

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty Makes the All-Star team

HBO scores with a basketball show that’s more thrilling off the court.

The Andy Warhol Diaries reveals the personal side of the iconic artist

By: Gena Radcliffe

Ryan Murphy presents an unexpectedly poignant look at Andy Warhol behind the scenes.

Pam & Tommy is as messy as the era (and scandal) it covers

By: Tim Stevens

The Hulu dramedy gets plenty wrong and plenty right in its chronicling of this mid-'90s celebrity royalty couple.

Sundance 2022: Call Jane turns history into melodrama

By: Peter Sobczynski

Call Jane takes a compelling story about abortion activists and turns it into cheap melodrama.

Sundance 2022: 892 is a mawkish social-issue thriller that dances around its central issues

By: Soham Gadre

A game cast can't save Abi Damaris Corbin's misguided, manipulative account of a real-life tragedy.

Being the Ricardos is a dull, talky affair

By: Gena Radcliffe

Aaron Sorkin just can’t help telling the story of the beloved 1950s sitcom duo through a modern lens.

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