Daily Archives: December 28, 2015

Making a Murderer

Netflix Original

MakingaMurderer

Shock. Disgust. Anger. Disbelief. Rage. Those were the main feelings I had while watching Making a Murderer. My favorite documentary has been Cocaine Cowboys for many years, but MaM thunders on through 10 episodes of absolute injustice and evil of the Manitowoc, Wisconsin police and the completely bent Criminal Justice system. This is a tale you won’t soon forget and want to talk about with everyone you meet.

The story of Making a Murder is Steven Avery. While he’s far from an angel, racking up a rap sheet by the time he was 18, he didn’t try to hide from what he had done and served his time. Then, in  1985, he’s accused of raping a woman. Despite spotty at best detective work (I’m being polite) and a multiple eyewitness backed alibi that is ignored for some reason, he was declared guilty and locked up for 18 years. In 2003, he’s exonerated through new DNA evidence. He said he was innocent the whole time and that the Manitowoc PD had it out for him. Two years later while his lawsuit against the county is underway (looking for millions in restitution and punitive damages and would ultimately end many careers and start serious reform), a woman who was last reported to be at the Avery scrap yard for work goes missing. The police come after Steven again and it happens all over again.

It sounds like a movie but it’s not. I’ve given a basic outline of the setup, but the follow through to condemn Steven Avery (and his family) is mindboggling. There was no hesitation, they thought Steven had to have done it. The following weeks of investigation construct a case for the ages.

I’m not going to get into great detail because you have to see this to get and process each bat shit crazy bit and it would take me hours to write about just a fraction of it.

The first case of 1985 is shocking in itself, Avery was clearly railroaded and the actual criminal went on to commit more sexual offenses for 10 more years. The cops got away with what they did to Steven.  Steven wants justice and sues the county with corruption allegations. Law enforcement circles the wagons to protect themselves when a few of them go to court. As the film clearly shows, step by step, the MPD (the 2 higher ups and a specific deputy) went after Avery again with a shocking disregard for protocol, humanity and the law they were sworn to uphold.

Timelines that make no sense. Suspects that were completely ignored. Tampered with evidence. Exploiting a retarded child’s trust in authority with blatant and gross manipulation and rights dodging. Collusion between the prosecution and a shady defense lawyer. Written down instructions to get Avery associated with evidence that was improperly obtained. Admitted tainted DNA results. Blatant lies to the media and on the stand. Bizarre double talk. Bias that you would not believe (MPD says they will hand over the investigation to another district PD, but they remain are all over the scene, going back multiple times and magically finding “evidence”.)

I watched the 10 episodes in 4 days. I never do that. Clearly the filmmakers had a view of what was happening to Avery from the start (they filmed for 10 years) and push that narrative and it’s around 30 years condensed into 10 hours. Steve’s trial went for 6 weeks and was shown in about 2 episodes. His nephew Brendan’s trial went for 2 weeks and was shown in 1 episode. Sinister music is played during the bad guys talking to drive the point home. But it doesn’t take background music to make the likes of former (haha) District Attorney Ken Kratz into a villain. You just need to see how he conducts himself and smirks when talking about a murder investigation. The number of suspicious events (at the very least I think the MPD is incompetent) stokes a lot of reasonable doubt. It’s hard to understand how this all happened. But, again, this idea is fostered from getting all of the information in Avery’s favor in a neatly organized package instead of a lengthy trial). In order for a jury to convict, there has to be a lot of information that the prosecution gave that the filmmakers left out (which could be circumstantial evidence, but with how shady the MPD and Lawyer Len were, you’d imagine it would be pretty easy to flip in Avery’s favor. It’s suspicious though).

I was obsessed with watching this to the end. I have never been so shocked and disgusted from a documentary of what’s wrong with our justice system. There’s no one person to blame, the whole thing needs to be re-evaluated and remade. Hopefully Making a Murderer stirs the pot again and puts pressure on the right place. Every bit of this trial needs to be made public so we can get all of the information and not a heavily edited film.

A must watch.

Inside Out

Movies

insideout

I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did, but Inside Out captures that animated magic that few studios outside of Pixar can. They’ve made some good to okay movies recently, but Inside Out hit all the marks for me.

Things are going really well for 11-year-old Riley. She’s happy living in Minnesota with her parents. She loves her school, friends, and ice hockey. But when her father gets a new job in San Francisco and uproots the family, her life is turned upside down.

We’re guided through this trying time of Riley’s life with an inside look at her emotions: Fear, Anger, Joy, Sadness and Disgust. A combination of fantastic characters, voice casting, animation and creative storytelling makes this one of the top movies Pixar has made.

I loved all of it, partly because it’s reminiscent of the creative Monsters Inc. In that movie, the world of the monsters let Pixar come up with a wild world and show off their imaginative flair in realizing that world. In Inside Out, they get to go nuts again, but within the human mind. How thoughts go through the mind and are stored. How decisions are made. What makes your personality. The visual look of the real world and Riley’s mind are distinct and beautiful. The designs of the emotions and their animation are brilliant. I first thought that they were mimicking the felt look of the Muppets, but on closer shots you can see that they are made of some kind of bubbling energy (the “hair” looks really awesome too). Their shapes and colors work perfectly with their emotion, the juxtaposition is really subtle, but really striking when they talk together.

For example, Joy and Sadness are the stars of the movie and pulled me in every direction. My favorite scene is with the two talking while they’re riding on the Train of Thought. Sadness is blue and is in the shape of a teardrop (brilliant voice casting with Phyllis Smith) and Joy is yellow and in the shape of a star (the perfect role for Amy Poehler). Joy is constantly trying to prop Sadness up and they have a heart to heart sitting on boxes of facts and opinions. Joy is literally a light source and sitting together, both characters glow. It’s this little visual cue of what’s going on. They co-exist and need each other despite being on opposite sides of the mood chart. They’ve been separated from the other emotions in HQ and while they work together, Joy often dismisses Sadness and tries to do everything. It can’t work that way and that’s what the movie is about.

Inside Out tells a very mature story in a way that everyone can understand. Growing up is hard. Living is hard. It’s impossible to be happy all of the time and that’s OK. Understanding and working through life with every emotion bubbling inside of you is normal. You can’t have the good without the bad and the bad without the good.

Impressed from the start to the end. It’s funny and sad and poignant and amazing to look at. Even the two shorts “Lava” and “Riley’s First Date?” are fantastic. Highly recommended.

Bing Bong forever!