xuyewklongxl2-143-750468 I really like the movie based on it being very true to the people involved! Very real! On that note, it is seriously f-ed up! I am interested in crime and crime history but this takes it to a new level! Crime seriously affected this guy and I really want to know what made his wife who she is! They are a perfect match but that scares me! This movie makes me wonder about EVERY person involved! The cops even more than the writer and his perfect match of a wife! The dinner table discussions make me blush and uncomfortable and I use the c and p words freely and without restraint. That being said, any movie that has this effect on me is intense! Be aware that it is VERY intense!

Michael O'Keefe If you are expecting a documentary that takes you in and out of a grisly underworld of murder in America...false alarm. More or less this is a self instigated "pat-on-the-back" of American crime novelist James Elroy. Author of such top sellers like "L.A. Confidential", "The Black Dahlia", "Hollywood Nocturnes" and "The Cold Six Thousand", Elroy talks about the unsolved murder of his mother and how it has similarities to the infamous 1947 Black Dahlia murder case in Los Angeles. His language is full of expletives, almost to the point of overkill; as he sits in an L.A. restaurant with some of his friends from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and detectives from the LAPD. Featured are visits to former murder scenes; crime scene photos and drive by glimpses of Elroy's childhood homes. The group bandy about thoughts of the very nature of murder, its investigation and how it effects the victim's loved ones. But the conversation is mainly focused on the Black Dahlia murder. Featured among Elroy's friends: Larry Harnisch, Frank Merriman, Bill Stoner, Ray Peavy, Rick Jackson, and Eric Mosher. Actor Nick Nolte drops by; but his presence seems just social. Elroy has a large following and this documentary may just give a glimpse why. Be prepared for some very disturbing photos.

ricky-1750 First, for all the times other reviewers may have seen the film, they have a few errors in their comments. The Black Dahlia victim was Elizabeth Short - not Mary - and as to the scenes in which Mr. Elroy is discussing his work before an audience, I saw no discomfort from the audience as he made his "welcome pedophiles ... " intro. In fact, it is clear from the beginning of the film that Mr. Elroy is a realist, and the reality of life and death, can be a very vulgar sort of thing.I found this film to be an amazing look at the author and at two murders which affected him profoundly (1) the murder of his mother with whom he had a difficult relationship as a child, and (2) the murder of Elizabeth Short.For Ellroy, Elizabeth Short becomes something of a stand in for his mother. Growing up, Ellroy comes to think of both women as being "whores" who probably got what they deserved by saying "no" to the wrong john. However, over time, he has come to see that both cases were and are more complex than that, and that neither woman could be tagged with a label like that and left otherwise undiscovered.Mr. Ellroy's language is admittedly crude, and I would not recommend this film for children. The graphic photographs of Elizabeth Short's badly mutilated body are enough for me to say this film is best left for those with a fair amount of emotional maturity.In the end, it is a film about a man determined to understand who and what his mother really was, and the mother/son bond that existed so many years ago.This film has levels in its levels. You could watch it 100 times and get something new out of it each time. I note that some other reviewers made much of Mr. Ellroy's dislike of Kennedy and Clinton, but the important part of that is the why ... because Mr. Ellroy sees both as misogynistic users of women. This is a man who really believes in having a deep lasting commitment to one woman, his wife who he clearly adores. She refers to him as a "feminist" because his female characters are not caricatures, they are full-blown and complex individuals.That's what I got from this film ... it takes Elizabeth Short and the author's mother from caricatures and makes you want to explore until you find the real person underneath.I've only read one of Mr. Ellroy's books ("The Black Dahlia"), but I will be buying and reading the rest of them now based on the power of this documentary.

clydus I've been drawn to this movie in a morbid sort of way. It is disturbing on many levels. Straight out we know that James Ellroy's mother was brutally strangled and the murder will be revisited and this has fashioned him as an authored. He is by the way the author of L.A. Confidential, which was made into a movie. The movie goes deeper than simply examining his mother's murder. It also examines the famous Black Dahlia murder involving Mary Short, which also played a role in Ellroy's becoming a murder mystery writer. Not wanting to be a spoiler here, the movie is more graphic than many horror films in the murders examined and Ellroy's prose is tossed in from time to time, describing why humans kill, makes for a chilling, yet informative kind of viewing. This film is not for squeamish folks. I would not let my children watch it. Some of the stuff was that disturbing. But, like I said, for some reason, like a moth to a flame, I've been drawn to this film over and over again.