The age of digital filmmaking and streaming has created the happy problem of an overwhelming number of documentaries available immediately to you. In Deep Dive Docs, we attempt to spotlight a few that fell through the cracks.
Many fiction films market themselves as Based on a True Story. Then there’s documentaries with premises so good, you’d have watched the fictionalized version. Such is Jamie Meltzer’s True Conviction about a Dallas detective agency run by railroaded ex-cons.
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Services: Free on Kanopy, $.99 rental on Amazon
Christopher Scott, Jonnie Lindsey, and Steven Pillips: all three served several years in prison for crimes they did not commit and now use the insight of their combined decades in prison to identify and exonerate the wrongfully imprisoned. Letters arrive at their agency every day asking for help and at least some if not most are legitimate miscarriages of justice.
The film doesn’t have the dramatic advantages of a crime picture – leaning too far that way would greatly shake confidence in its veracity – but the movie’s still most interesting when Meltzer indulges it as a detective story. He narrows the focus to two cases from the multitude of options. First item of business – is the person actually innocent? One was coerced into a false confession, he says. The other had key witnesses ignored during the trial.
The P.I.s have a hunch based on the description of circumstances. But a hunch isn’t proof, so the film tags along through the grinding process of following cold trails and dealing with a reluctant justice system that made up its mind about these cases years ago.
Despite the incidents occurring in the distant past – twenty years ago for one of them – the three track down the players in the case and descend on them like a trio of Columbos. Experts and lawyers are sometimes dismissive, but everyone finds them hard to shake. Others reveal truths they’ve held over the years and gratefully provide revelatory new information.
Between investigation beats, the film shows the difficult lives of the men outside of their detective work, as they grapple with the lost years and the cycle of incarceration. The personal stories humanizes them as men and as friends, but this is not touchy-feely work, and when there’s a confrontation between the three at a particularly tense moment it encapsulates the brutality as well as the love that can come from true honesty between people.
Overturning a conviction is hard, even when it becomes clear that the evidence was flimsy at best. One confrontation with a prosecutor unveils that his rationale was one part a dubious confession, one part divine intervention, as he asked for a sign from God if he was doing the right thing and, lo and behold, received his daily email Bible verse. This does not go over well with the detectives.
I won’t spoil the outcomes of the two cases featured in this film except to say you are rewarded for some patience with a moment of revelation. But the larger point of True Conviction is in the new stack of desperate letters that greets the men at the start of every day.
About the writer
C. D. Ploughman
The weary Ploughman is a writer and filmmaker, focusing these days on documentary and educational projects. He obsesses over movies with his very patient wife and children.
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What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season One, Episode Nine, “Henry, Please Come Home”
This must have been shot earlier than the others; for one thing, Spearchucker is still around, but also it’s the first case of Henry leaving and having Frank in charge. Dramatically speaking, this is a weaker episode, stretching out the conflict instead of barrelling through, but it is the first exploration of the idea that the intense medical discipline is married to the intense lack of military discipline. The guys make fun of Henry’s lax command, but he also trusts them totally to get their work done. When Frank takes command, he forces them through the military traditions, not only causing morale to plummet but slowing down the actual work.
New Rose Hotel
An agonising exercise in coolness. This is a hangout movie vaguely gesturing at a thriller; the first twenty minutes are nothing but Christopher Walken lecturing people, and it works because he’s saying cool things in a cool way with cool cinematography and editing and setpieces and music playing. If there is a story here, it’s Willem Dafoe getting into shit because he kept indulging a friend he loves and giving into his vices.
This is also my first Abe Ferrara film.
The Avengers, “Never Never Say Die” – How did someone hit the same man twice with his car, and the man didn’t die? A good question that is not actually answered well enough. Though it has something to do with robot duplicates of scientists planning to take over the UK, I think. Christopher Lee plays one of the robots and one of the scientists but he’s kind of flat here.
D and D – Mentioning this now because our DM was busy with work and had her husband fill in, and at the end of the session he took a call from her and had to go. She was in a car accident! She’s bruised but doing ok. Just a really jarring end to the game.
I have apparently internalized your TV schedule via these threads, because I thought the first write-up was for an episode of Kojack and was EXTREMELY confused when I got to the “robot duplicates” part.
I’ve been meaning to see New Rose Hotel forever since it’s based on William Gibson’s short story.
King of New York is essential viewing.
Watched part of a Bad Brains set from 1982 at CBGBs on YouTube. Amazing show clearly. My friend and I were cracking jokes about “Which one of these people are racist? You never know at a punk show sometimes.”
M3GAN – have heard a few “you know what was surprisingly great? M3GAN” recommendations for this, so threw it on the rental list and yeah, it’s pretty good fun. I didn’t realise it was directed by the guy who made Housebound, which I think is considerably better, but this is a fun step up into bigger budget horror filmmaking with just a few frustrations that left me feeling it could have been better. When it properly engages its sense of humour it really works, so it’s annoying that there are so many scenes and supporting characters that feel like they didn’t receive as much attention as they should have done. A little more care to flesh out the script a bit and I think this could have been in the genuine cult classic zone, it falls short of that for me but still an enjoyably trashy 100 minutes and I’ll happily check out the sequel.
Is the sequel called MEG4N?
Sadly not! Although it seems the release date has been pushed back so maybe they realised the error of their ways and they’re painstakingly re-doing the title card.
Maybe it’ll be M4GAN, and they’ll also introduce a rival robot or whatever named Morgan.
I believe that M4GAN can Make 4merica Great AgaiN
Ah, the biopic of M3GAN Three Stallion.
She got that WAP (wireless application protocol)
How did I not know this guy made Housebound? Great little flick and its humor/horror vibe points to what works here, enjoyably trashy covers it well. It ices a kid, so I’m happy.
Yeah I had no idea it was the same guy until I looked it up afterwards. Probably would have watched it sooner if I’d known!
Assassination Classroom S1E1-10 – At Tristan’s recommendation, or at least description. When you hear the concept – a classroom of junior high students taught by a super-powered octopus must learn how to kill him by the end of the term or he will destroy the earth – you can’t not check it out. And it turns out the series is even more daffy than this, adding layer upon layer until it operates on its own increasingly complex logic. How will the transfer student, an newly-conscious AI in a 3D printer that can replicate weapons as needed interact with Professor Bitch, the elite seductress assassin who isn’t afraid to use her ample cleavage to gain advantage? All of it is deeply silly but handled with a mostly light touch (I could do with about 75% less “Are you kidding?” unison responses). The strangest part of all? Koro Sensei – the all-powerful deadly octopus teacher – is also the best possible junior high mentor, unfailingly encouraging whether getting a student to have confidence in their poison-making or math, or playfully dodging a hail of machine gun fire and pushing the kids to come up with better plans. This has the drama-dampening effect of making it hard to believe he’ll actually destroy the earth in the end or that the students will want to take advantage of a weakness and do him in. But there’s 30 episodes of insanity to go, and I am curious.
I’ve never heard of this in my life, but it does sound like the sort of thing I’d recommend (or at least describe).
Prizzi’s Honor — I didn’t know this was a comedy, which it very much is until the third act. But it’s not jokey. The humor arises from the characters. Jack Nicholson is Charley Partana, an enforcer for the mob who falls in love at first sight with Kathleen Turner. But they really get to know each other after he’s sent to ice her husband. Angelica Houston is the ostracized mob princess who still loves Nicholson. Houston won an Oscar for her performance here, very deserved, but for me it’s Nicholson with the best performance. Jack has been such a caricature of himself in real life for so long it’s always a surprise just how good he is, and his Charley is very much a regular joe who just happens to have an uncommon job. Nicholson plays him with a near-permanent look of surprise as he’s baffled by the strange world he lives in. But he’s not dumb, just bewildered. William Hickey, as the decrepit old Don, is also a gas; he (and Nicholson) were also nominated for Oscars. The tone of this movie is hard to describe, but it works.
That last act sure sucks the comedy out, doesn’t it? But yeah, really good movie with an odd tone, Hickey might be the most crucial factor in that regard – ludicrously decrepit but still menacing.
I ran out of time to write for Wednesday morning, so here are my Tuesday and Wednesday watches.
Poppa’s House, “Elevator Friend”
Old Poppa’s House, where there’s no in-laws
Old Poppa’s House, he’s in man-opause
Old Poppa’s House, they won’t leave him alone
We get a pair of reunions for the Wayans-es in this one, with a couple of simple plots. Poppa needs to find someone to go to the Mets game, and with Leon’s passing (see episode 8!), he realizes he doesn’t have any friends to invite along. Junior can’t come, because he’s…
…reuniting with his old friend and directing partner Todd, played by none other than Lamorne Morris! Now he’s going by “Preston Valentine” professionally. He’s got a nice career going, having recently directed the horror film A Loud Place (“It’s like A Quiet Place, but with an all-Black cast”). He brings the script for the sequel A Louder Place and reads it with Junior and Nina… which is full of the thinly-veiled subtext Junior warned Nina about, that “Preston” thinks Nina has held Junior back from his potential as a director.
Fortunately, this doesn’t actually result in any complications, as Junior never once considers leaving Nina for Preston’s job offer, although he is a little dense about figuring out all of Preston’s insinuations. Lamorne Morris has fun with a weirdly pretentious character.
Meanwhile, the closest thing Senior can think of to a friend is the “elevator friend” he had back at the radio station, who he’d always cut up with when they were on the elevator together but never learned his name. So he meets up with the guy, invites him to hang, and (eventually) learns his name is Jarnold. And in our second reunion of the night, he’s played by Tommy Davidson! A kinda goofy, high-energy Tommy Davidson character here, and it’s pretty fun to see the two of them together again as well.
Pretty solid. I think I wrote too much about this one because it kinda sapped my energy for writing about any of the other shows.
St. Denis Medical, “People Just Say Stuff Online”
A negative Yelp review sends Joyce spiraling and the other staff onto their own ridiculous behavior The negative review is due to Ron, who tells a patient with a knee problem that one of his options to relieve it is to lose weight. The review dings him for “body shaming.” Joyce tries to get him to be more sensitive with patients, but Ron stands pretty firm that his job is to give honest and true medical advice. Until he reflects on how his ex-wife used to tell him to be more sensitive too… as do his kids… and his co-workers… and most of his friends. Maybe he does have a bigger problem there.
That’s the funniest and sharpest part of the episode. The rest was a little too predictable to be up to snuff with recent ones, though still fairly funny. Alex finds a review that calls her “snippy” and insists it doesn’t bother her and it surely must be about another Alex. Predictable, but good work from Allison Tolman. Bruce reflects on how he used to be obese in high school and bullied for it, and this sends him on a spiral to track down his bully to show how much better his life is now (although his bully’s life is so bad that Bruce flips back to feeling bad for him).
Still pretty good all in all, although I liked the last, oh, five episodes better.
But hey, between this and Poppa’s House, the In Living Color cast is having a little network-sitcom moment. What’s Kelly Coffield up to? Or T’Keyah “Crystal” Keymáh? Or that James Carrey fellow?
Shoresy, “The Itch”
“Shoresy’s life after hockey is put to the test.” Yeah, that’s about the long and short of it. More of the previous plots continue, with the 3-on-1 show with Anik trying out Jory Jordan for an episode in the third seat (great mix of attempted professionalism and entitled assholedom from the kid), Shoresy still being resistant to taking up coaching, the team running their buddies through skating and training (although even they realize, in the end, sometimes you just gotta go tubing), and, of course, Shoresy’s continued quest for Laura Mohr. Still pretty good, I mean, I dunno, what do you say about the fourth season of a comedy without just quoting lines?
High Potential, “Partners”
The apparent poisoning death of an AI startup guy brings in the FBI– which means bringing in Karadec’s ex-partner. Of course there’s some backstory drama there and they find themselves beefing over jurisdiction and who’s helping whom. And of course the FBI guy is skeptical of Morgan. But with a case that has more moving parts and trickery than usual– and actually requires the FBI’s vast surveillance / computing capability as well as Morgan’s insights– and with a little drama at home when Ludo gets overworked taking care of the kids, this was a pretty good episode.
Suburgatory, “Open Door Policy” and “The Birds and the Biederman”
Rewatches in season 3, largely focused at this point in the season on George and Tessa getting over their respective breakups. George wallows for a while until Tessa brings his dad to snap him out of it. Natasha Leggero’s dogwalker taking an interest in him certainly helps. Tessa insists she’s over Ryan, until he comes back home, with a girlfriend who’s suspiciously similar to her, and that sends her spiraling. There was some funny stuff in these episodes (the insane negotiations between Dalia and Tessa on behalf of each parent over the breakup), but these were more dramatic than usual.
I’ve also been watching some commentaries on The Shield, and so far, the “Tar Baby” commentary is the funniest, thanks to Anthony Anderson, Michael Chiklis, Michael Peña, and Jay Karnes (especially Anderson). Learn more about Anthony Anderson’s thoughts on “pump” rhythm and self-professed illiteracy! Learn why Michael Chiklis laughs every single time Dutch shows up on screen this episode! Learn how to pronounce the craft service guy’s nickname!
This sounds like an interesting doc and also a great idea for a long-running TV procedural. The director also made a documentary about “song-poems”, the weirdo small-time business ventures where people offer to turn lyrics / poems into a full song for a one-time fee. Sounded right up my street and seems to have some major fans on Letterboxd but I found it a little disappointing, although thinking about it now I wonder if I should watch it again (it’s only an hour long).
I’m almost certain I know a guy featured in the doc if my money’s right.
Year of the Month update!
This February, you can sign up to write about anything from 2016, including these movies, albums, and books.
TBD: Bridgett Taylor: Rogue One
Feb. 6th: Cori Domschot: Sing
Feb 7th: Gillian Nelson: Queen of Katwe
Feb. 11th: Lauren James: Inside
Feb. 12th: Bridgett Taylor: Doctor Strange
Feb. 13th: Cori Domschot: Ghostbusters
Feb. 14th: Gillian Nelson: Milo Murphy’s Law
Feb. 18th: John Roberts: Silence
Feb. 21st: Gillian Nelson: Pete’s Dragon
Feb. 27th: Cori Domschot: Hidden Figures
Feb. 27th: John Bruni: Jet Plane and Oxbow
Feb. 28th: Sam Scott: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
And March is going to be Silent Era Month, where you can join these writers in examining your favorite silent movies and anything else from the 1910s and ’20s!
Mar. 26th: Sam Scott: Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie
Mar. 31st: John Anderson: The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
Seconding vomas on this sounding like a great setup for a TV show–although I suspect that the grinding and difficult nature of the work would mean that the most satisfying episodic version would have to be fictionalized, the better to have their efforts pay off more frequently. Anyway, this sounds right up my alley.
Yeah, the adherence to the reality is its greatest asset and its ultimate liability for going much beyond what we have. These guys are badasses! But, like, real world badasses that have to make appointments in drab municipal buildings and stuff. I’m not sure the director has it in him to goose the drama and it’s probably best he really kinda doesn’t.
They even come ready-made with a sense of style that would work great on a TV show! Who’s running programming at FX these days?
This is so far up my alley it’s set up an illegally zoned produce stand. And on Kanopy! Great write-up, will be checking this out.