“Is it paranoia if, indeed, everyone is coming after you?”

Christine is one of those movies you stumble across on accident and cannot believe you’d never heard of once the credits begin to roll. Antonio Campos and Craig Shilowich have created something here that is more honest, more subtle, and more real, than most other film out there. 2021’s American-condition simulator, The Fallout, though on an entirely different level, is what I would most closely relate this to in terms of its careful depiction of trauma. Most films – most stories, really – build from their beginnings and lead you to an ending. Christine, alternatively, hands you this wonderful, struggling person, Christine Chubbuck, and simply asks for you to stay with her as the world happens around her. I cannot recommend this film enough.

In Christine you follow the titular character as she wades through the male dominated, sensationalist world of 1970’s news reporting. With a non-ideal home life and a station struggling to stay relevant, Christine is ready to do whatever it takes to get noticed when talk of a big promotion begins. Bigger stories, juicer takes; Christine Chubbuck is on the job.

If you think this all sounds a little bit like 2014’s crime-thriller, Nightcrawler, I wouldn’t blame you. So did I. In fact, that very relation is what put me off of watching this for so long… and I couldn’t have been more wrong. Brought sensitively and wonderfully to life by the stunning Rebecca Hall, Christine is more a person than most characters who have entire television shows dedicated to them. The story of Christine is Christine, and that story is emotively told through excellent performances, intimate cinematography, and intelligent use of environmental music rather than an artificial score.

Christine is a film that forces you to look at the seemingly “normal” people around you and understand that everyone is more complex, more involved, more hurt, more happy, and just simply more than what they may ever show you. While the entire film is stand-out strong, a sequence occurring shortly after the halfway mark of the event drives the point home more strongly than I think any I’ve seen in film. While I don’t know that Christine crosses that threshold of “important” films for me, it gets about as close as you can and, depending on the audience, definitely has a place in the discussion.

This is a film that I’m sure I’ll be searching for an equal to for a long time to come. Seemingly inverse [though likely aware] to its core plot conflict, Christine is anything but sensationalist and that’s what allows it to drive its point home so sensationally. Rebecca Hall is fantastic in every role she plays, but I’m shocked she didn’t get more recognition for this one. If you don’t already know who Christine Chubbuck is, I recommend you simply watch this film and don’t ruin the experience for yourself. Go in blind and empathetic, and this is sure to be a winner.

“We all have these different versions of ourselves competing to be the real us.”