Michael Kleen (makleen2) Events leading to journalist Christine Chubbuck's 1974 on-air suicide are recounted in Christine (2016), a bleak but potent film written by Craig Shilowich and directed by Antonio Campos. Strong performances by its lead actors and its visual authenticity make Christine the best overlooked film of 2016.Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) is a sincere but troubled woman working as a reporter for a local news station in Sarasota, Florida. She lives with her mother, Peg (J. Smith-Cameron), and performs puppet shows at a children's hospital on the weekends. Her life begins to spiral out of control when, approaching 30, she discovers she has a cyst on one of her ovaries and may never have children.Her boss, Michael (Tracy Letts), is concerned about falling ratings and wants Christine to cover more sensational stories. This professional dilemma is compounded by the arrival of station owner Bob Andersen (John Cullum), who wants to move some personnel to Baltimore. Christine is passed over in favor of anchor George Peter Ryan (Michael C. Hall) and sports anchor Andrea Kirby (Kim Shaw). This is a double-blow because Christine had an unrequited crush on George.I won't reveal how the film ends, but you probably already guessed. Rebecca Hall, who also starred in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) and The Dinner (2017), is outstanding as Christine Chubbuck, and won several awards for her effort. I'm not sure this film would have been nearly as good without her performance. She disappeared into the role, bringing her character to life with all the emotion and idiosyncrasies of a real person.This film's authenticity is also incredible. If you could somehow capture the look and feel of a decade, Christine does it. 1970s period pieces usually feature larger than life characters and situations. This film does the exact opposite-it shows normal people at a normal job, who happened to be involved in an incredibly tragic incident.But Christine is not entirely accurate. The film depicts Christine living with her mother, which was true, but her older brother also lived with them. I can't recall any mention of her siblings in the film. Also, in the film, Christine procrastinates getting a cyst removed from her ovary, but in real life she had the surgery a year prior to her suicide. Neither of these alterations negatively affect the film. The filmmakers needed to show how the surgery affected her in the run-up to her suicide, which would have been difficult if it occurred months before the events depicted in the movie.Christine confronts an issue in journalism that continues to be debated to this day. In the film, Christine is constantly butting heads with her boss over the definition of news. Michael is concerned about their station's low ratings and wants her to focus on more controversial stories. Christine doesn't think reporting on stories that interest people is real journalism.The push to report on crime and disaster deeply conflicts with Christine's self-image, and she frames her suicide as a statement against sensationalism in news. "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in 'blood and guts', and in living color, you are going to see another first-attempted suicide," she says before she pulls a pistol and shoots herself behind her right ear.The message couldn't be any clearer, but don't expect Christine to spoon-feed you answers. The movie is like a snapshot of one moment in time. We don't know how Christine's family and coworkers deal with the tragedy, or whether it affects that station's approach to the news. Its open-endedness enhances the film's final impact.

thesteffigrace I have to start by saying that all the negative reviews calling the film "boring," "too slow," or "uninteresting" must have been submitted by people who have not experienced this kind of mental illness first hand. I have, and the way this story was told hit the nail on the head. This film may be uncomfortable for some to watch due to the subject matter, but the slow, grinding, gutwrenching nature of depression was beautifully captured in Christine. If you've ever been to that dark place of desparation, then you'll appreciate this film. I already knew how the story was going to end, which made it even harder to watch at times, especially since I knew it was based on the true story of Christine Chubbuck, the news anchor who shot herself in the head on live television. Watching Christine teeter back and forth between the hope of bettering her circumstances, and the painful descent back down brought me to tears at times. One scene that really caught me was at around three-quarters into the movie. In the middle of conducting an interview, she has a temporary mental breakdown. She calmly tells the interviewee that they will continue the interview at a later date, and leaves the room. She runs into the bathroom and cracks, bursting into a tormented sob session. The moment her friend runs in and asks if she's okay, Christine instantaneously straightens herself up and says she's fine. A moment like that is even more haunting knowing that eventually, Christine will later take her own life with the cameras rolling, and all aimed at her.

eddie_baggins Christine (no relation to the Stephen King Christine) is an uncomfortable watch.There's nothing grisly, seedy or terrifying but Antonio Campos's film presents such a realistic and unquestionably bleak portrait of a rapidly deteriorating human being, brought down to her lowest ebb through unrealistic expectations and dreams, that it makes for eye squinting and tough viewing, in this retelling of real life news reporter/journalist Christine Chubbuck.There may be many that know of Chubbuck's story but for the sake of those that don't, Campos's film delves into the final months of Chubbuck's life as her fractured ego and increasingly erratic behaviour towards her work, co-workers such as Maria Dizzia's good hearted colleague Jean, Tracy Lett's tough station boss Michael or Michael C. Hall's potential love interest and news anchor George and genuine everyday life threatens to implode at any moment and when that moment comes, it ends up being one of the most shocking and sad moments in television history.Chubbuck isn't at all an easy person to relate or warm to. She's quick to wrath, stubborn beyond reasoning, cold and self-centred but she's also clearly a person that wasn't in a sane state of mind and nailing this tricky business is Rebecca Hall who delivers a career best turn as the doomed figure.A for some reason long-standing member of Hollywood's underrated field, Hall has over a number of years performed strongly in a large collection of big budgeted and smaller scale pictures but Chubbuck gives her a chance to really show her acting chops.In almost every frame of the film, Hall is never less than captivating, even though Chubbuck is herself equally frustrating and it's likely had this film gained more traction in the mainstream media, Hall would've been a worthy player in awards season attention.From big moments through to small subtle character traits Hall embodies this lost soul and is the best thing about the sometimes monotonously paced film and she's that good that many of the films side characters including those played by Michael C. Hall and Dizzia feel a little underwhelming, with Michael C. Hall in particular once again finding himself in a role that is below his range and it feels as though the highs of early Dexter are still a ways off from being recaptured in feature length roles.Final Say – Capturing the time and place of early 1970's America well, Christine is a solid if unremarkable drama that's filled to overflowing with foreboding, bleakness and disappointment, making it not for everyone but harbouring a noteworthy performance from Rebecca Hall. Christine is a tough slog but one that's worth tuning in for.3 hand puppet shows out of 5

gtyoshida The real Christine Chubbuck (played by Rebecca Hall) committed suicide in 1974 during a live morning news show broadcast from a local TV station in Sarasota, Florida. While her struggle with mental depression no doubt triggered this decision, the underlying theme of this movie carries a powerful message about choices facing career women in modern day America. Christine is happiest when she sings along to her car radio, shows off her sly sense of humour as host of the human interest news segments, and puts on puppet shows for children hospitalized with intellectual disabilities. But she is also driven with ambition and fights tooth and nail with the TV station manager (Tracy Letts) who wants to change the news format and refuses to help advance her career. She uses work as an excuse to avoid intimate friendships with the news anchor, George (Michael C. Hall), her young director and admirer, Jean (Maria Dizzia), and her likable co-worker, Steve (Timothy Simons). Her mother, Peg (J. Smith-Cameron) also a working woman who has found comfort in casual sex and marijuana, blames mental depression for robbing her daughter of the physical embraces she desperately needs but Christine is a career women struggling to find her own sexual norms and in the end chooses to kill herself rather than abandon this dream. Ironically, the movie ends with the theme song from the "Mary Tyler Moore" show playing in the background. If you like offbeat characters, you will enjoy the movie "Christine".