Tag: True Story

REVIEW: Strong cast and inspiring tale help lift ‘Tow’ over issues

A 2025 film with Rose Byrne playing a mother in a difficult living situation and stressful personal life? Yes indeed, and it’s not “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

In this movie, debuted at a 2025 film festival but just hitting theaters now, Byrne stars as Amanda Ogle. The film tells the true story of how Ogle, a homeless woman in Seattle on hard times, is trying to get back on her feet while living out of her 1991 Toyota Camry.

Unfortunately, the last thing she owns is stolen during a job interview, and later towed away after it’s ditched. Receiving a huge bill to get her car back, she decides to take the matter to court, claiming she wasn’t at fault because of the theft. To help her, an ambitious non-profit lawyer, Kevin (Dominic Sessa), decides to help her.

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REVIEW: ‘The Lost Bus’ is a heart-pounding survival drama

More than a decade after “Captain Phillips,” director Paul Greengrass is back with a thrilling movie based on another true story. And he gets it right again.

“The Lost Bus” is a film set during the 2018 Camp Fire, an event caused by a transmission line failing in northern California. The fire ended up becoming the deadliest in the Golden State’s history, largely destroying several communities, including the city of Paradise.

Greengrass’ film provides a view of the fire’s overall impact, mainly through the lead firefighting agencies. However, the movie largely centers on Kevin (Matthew McConaughey), a local bus driver who evacuated an elementary school through the fire with help from a teacher, Mary (America Ferrera).

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REVIEW: ‘Last Breath’ is deep on suspense, shallow elsewhere

This film is somewhat paradoxical in that it gets about as low as you can go in terms of depth, but isn’t exactly deep.

In 2019 director Alex Parkinson released the documentary “Last Breath.” The film centered on an incident where a deep-sea diver tasked with repairing pipes was nearly lost when his umbilical cable snapped and he was left on the ocean floor. Parkinson has now followed that up with a feature length narrative film.

The movie showcases how Chris Lemons (Finn Cole) was cut off from the air supply on the seabed and ran out of oxygen. It also shows fellow divers Duncan (Woody Harrelson) and David (Simu Liu), as well as ship Captain Andre (Cliff Curtis) and repair supervisor Craig (Mark Bonnar) making rescue attempts.

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REVIEW: ‘Stillwater’ stalls due to poor narrative choices

Films inspired by a true story often take artistic liberties, which is perfectly fine. They better be well executed, though.

In this case, “Stillwater” was inspired by the story of Amanda Knox, an American woman falsely convicted on the charge of murdering a fellow exchange student in Italy. Abigail Breslin portrays Allison in “Stillwater,” an American woman in France who’s been in prison for four years.

Allison was convicted of murdering her roommate and classmate from a French university, although she maintains her innocence. Also convinced of her innocence is her dad, Bill (Matt Damon). The movie picks up with Bill visiting Allison in jail. During his stay, he learns there might be more evidence to prove her innocence and decides to stay, in case a development happens.

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REVIEW: Despite award caliber cast and crew, ‘The Laundromat’ is a loss

With the closure of movie theaters because of the coronavirus pandemic, I’m taking a look back at more movies from 2019.

What a waste. This film has a talented Academy Award winning director, actors who’ve been nominated or won Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmys, including one of the greatest actresses ever. On top of that, it had a rich, fascinating subject matter. Yet the picture as a whole is a complete mess.

Meryl Streep plays Ellen Martin in “The Laundromat,” a woman who loses her husband during a ride on a lake cruise. Following the accident, Ellen speaks with her financial adviser, but she finds issues with how the insurance is being processed.

With something seeming off, Ellen decides to explore what’s going on, and finds out that the insurance company she’s dealing with is linked to entities listed in the Panama Papers. The notorious documents detailing thousands of offshore financial transactions were leaked in 2016.

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REVIEW: ‘Bombshell’ has strong acting, but lacks extensive insight

Roger Ailes’ ouster from the media company he built is explored in this drama, but it only scratches the surface.

“Bombshell” tells the story of Ailes’ (John Lithgow) final months at Fox News by taking the perspective of anchors Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) and Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman). Additionally, brought into the middle of the situation is a reporter for Fox, Kayla (Margot Robbie) who’s representative of anonymous victims who worked at the company.

Aside from a few flashbacks, the film takes place over the course of the 2016 presidential election, with an emphasis on the Republican Primary. The focus on the primary comes as some at Fox News, such as Kelly, have issues with then candidate Donald Trump. The friction of the primary coincides with the building of a case against Ailes, who was accused by several women of sexual harassment and assault.

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