TRUE to LIFE or BIO-FLICKS. “Dead Man's Wire.” / “Christy.” / “Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness.” / “Hatton Garden: the Heist.”

“Dead Man's Wire” (2025, Netflix) crime thriller, directed by Gus Van Sant. Inspired by the 1977 hostage standoff involving Tony Kiritsis, who is played by Bill Skarsgård. With Cary Elwes, Colman Domingo, and Al Pacino. 

       Bill Skarsgård's intense but loose performance is both hilariously nerdy and fearlessly earnest. Comical but not really funny; humorous but serious. Bottomline, Bill embodied Tony Kiritsis’ dead-end desperation and focused intent to push his message across.

       Mr Van Sant's mastery in infusing laughs in an authentic period piece. But who says the behaviour of the police, media, and the rest of the characters here are not true? 🎥💻📽

<>“Christy” (2025, HBO Max) biographical sports drama. The film chronicles the rise of former professional boxer Christy Martin to becoming America's best-known female boxer in the 1990s, and later her coach-turned-husband's 2010 attempted murder of her. Stars Sydney Sweeney as Christy Salters Martin.

       This movie isn't so bad. Sadly, it suffered from the popular shaming of Sydney Sweeney as Left-wing media's Rightist poster girl. At least some critics, who chose not to ride the culture war wagon, sort of thumbed-up Ms Sweeney's performance. Example, Glenn Garner of Deadline Hollywood: "Some critics have praised Sweeney for disappearing into the role of the professional boxer, others say that’s all the movie has going for it."

       True, “Christy” is a run-of-the-mill biopic, but what do we expect? Certainly this movie isn't the genre's Top 10-lister but it is still entertaining. 🎥💻📽

“Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness” (2024, Amazon Prime) biographical drama, based on the play “Modigliani” by Dennis McIntyre, about the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Directed by Johnny Depp. 

       Either the screenplay by Jerzy and Mary Kromolowski lacked dramatic tension or Mr Depp's direction is bereft of thrill. Or both. 

       Riccardo Scamarcio as Modi is, in fact, fine. Antonia Desplat as the English writer Beatrice Hastings, Modi's muse sort of, is fine as well. And then there's Stephen Graham as art dealer Léopold Zborowski, and Al Pacino as art patron/buyer Maurice Gangnat. Still, the 108-minute movie is lifeless or inert. 🎥💻📽

“Hatton Garden: the Heist” (2016, Fawesome) British action film, based on the true story of the 2015 Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary in Hatton Garden, London, carried out by a group of elderly career criminals. 

       Compelling true-crime story but this particular movie version, Terry Lee Coker, is lifelessly impotent. No depth, mystery is absent, and details of the otherwise brilliant criminal plot are ignored or omitted. 

       Instead, I recommend two other versions. <>2017's “The Hatton Garden Job” a.k.a. “One Last Heist,” directed by Ronnie Thompson, and stars Larry Lamb, Matthew Goode, and Joely Richardson. <>2018's “King of Thieves,” directed by James Marsh, starring Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Charlie Cox, Jim Broadbent, Paul Whitehouse and Ray Winstone. 🎥💻📽