Though its footage was shot during the Reagan presidency, Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Pena’s Oscar-nominated 1987 documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin? shows a Detroit that looks entirely familiar. The urban core’s even then somewhat threadbare, dark, and windswept streets are contrasted with images of an earlier and more prosperous era to show how far the Motor City had fallen, much as filmmakers more than three decades later continue to do...
My full review is at PopMatters.
If there had not been a body count, this story would have made for a fantastically trashy TLC reality show.
My review from the Tribeca Film Festival is at The Playlist.
As an experiment in format, American Murder is intriguing. Instead of bringing people in to give fresh commentary, we have only the artifacts left behind by a seemingly ordinary family in a seemingly ordinary suburb. But as a documentary, it makes for an incomplete picture...
My full review is at The Playlist.
