Christine 2016

     This film is based on actual events that happened in 1974.  Christine Chubbuck is 29 years old and she is working for a local news station in Sarasota, Florida.  She lives with her mother and Christine pays the rent.  She is frequently butting heads with the station manager Michael.  She wants to focus on human-interest pieces and he wants to report on crime.  He feels crime ups the ratings.  Christine begins to experience pains in her stomach, she struggles with depression, professional and personal frustrations.  When Christine finds out that the owner of the station has come to poach some of the Sarasota team for the Baltimore news, she purchases as police scanner to report on grittier stories.

     I didn’t know anything about Christine or what happens in this film before viewing.  There is a lot of competition at the station and this is increased by the announcement that the station owner is coming for a visit.  It's possible that one or more of the reporters could be moved to a higher level station area.  Christine had previously worked in Cleveland for a year in 1966-1967.  She moved to Canton, Ohio in 1967 for three months and then moved to Pittsbugh, Pennsylvania and left in 1968.  She started working as a hospital computer operator in 1968 and she spent two years with a cable television station in Sarasota, Florida.  She worked in the traffic department in St. Petersburg, Florida and then she joined ABC affiliate WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida.  It seems highly possible that this added pressure on Christine could cause a breakdown and she had a breakdown once before at another station?  You can see that Christine is very tense and she's not very flexible.  3* (This movie is OK)

119 min, Bio directed by Antonio Campos with Rebecca Hall, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, Maria Dizzia J. Smith-Cameron, Timothy Simons, Kim Shaw, John Cullum, Morgan Spector, Jayson Warner Smith, Kimberly Drummond, Lindsay Ayliffe.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, 87% critic 70% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2 ½*, Amazon 3.6* out of 5* with 99 reviews, Metacritic 72 out of 100 with 34 critics 7.4 out of 10 with 35 reviews.

Special Note:  Craig Shilowich wrote the screenplay and he struggled with depression while attending New York University after 9/11.  He eventually dropped out and he withdrew from contact with people.  He would spend days walking in his room and peeking out the window.  This was to keep from dealing with people.  After about seven years, he started to get better and the depression went away.   His fascination with Christine’s story leads him to write about her struggles.