An IFC Picture, Written by Guinevere Turner, Directed by Mary Harron.
The story of the Manson Murders is one of the most fascinating, complicated, and tragic events in recent history. Within the last few years we have seen multiple versions (The Haunting of Sharon Tate, AHS: Cult, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and they have all taken different approaches, as does this one.
We see events from the retrospective viewpoints of some of the Manson girls who ended up with life imprisonment. It is an interesting premise that isn’t quite explored as much as it should’ve been.
It is an entertaining film at times, but it never quite digs deep enough into the source material to make it a really good film, especially from the groundbreaking director of American Psycho.
The film doesn’t back away from the uncomfortable sexual aspects to the story, and also hints at the racial hatred that was a strong and often unknown aspect of these events, but it just never fully goes far enough with the things it introduces.
Hannah Murray is good in the lead role, Merritt Wever is convincing in her role, and Suki Waterhouse is criminally underused. Matt Smith however is very well cast as Manson, and makes for a charming and yet chilling Charles Manson. He isn’t able to fully dig into the varieties of Manson’s twisted personality, but it is a good performance nonetheless.
This is a decent film, but due to the cast/crew/source material, I can’t help but think that this could’ve been so much better.
Rating = 3/5
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