An anti-exploitation biopic that asks audiences to spend two hours waiting for Rebecca Hall to re-create the moment when Sarasota newscaster Christine Chubbuck famously blew her brains out on the 10 o’clock news. You’ll need a shield to help deflect all the irony director Antonio Campos and screenwriter Craig Shilowich throw before the camera: nurses smoking in a pediatrics ward, a ham-fisted use of period music, and a curtain shot at The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the latter having more insight into television news than anything the filmmakers have to offer. It’s Hall’s show. With her bent frame, pursed Ziploc bag lips, and eyebrows you can plant corn in, her performance is a portrait of repression that’s at times too much to bear. (It doesn’t help that her character comes off as thoroughly unsympathetic.) Part of me wishes that I had skipped this in favor of the documentary telling, Kate Plays Christine, released earlier this year. (2016) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.