How to resolve AdBlock issue? Arts & Life
LIFETIME TRUE CRIME MOVIES IN JUNE
The Lifetime cable channel regularly churns out crime movies that are “Ripped from the Headlines,” and the month of June will feature more movies than normally, with the biggest star being Teri Hatcher in “The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story.”
Known for her television roles, Hatcher portrayed Lois Lane in the series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” followed later in the role of Susan Mayer in the long-running “Desperate Housewives” series. She was also Paris Carver in the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
A Lifetime movie will debut every Friday and Saturday in June beginning with “The Girl Locked Upstairs: The Tanya Katch Story” on Friday, June 8th. Tanya (Jordyn Ashley Olsen) was fourteen and at risk, struggling with an unhappy home life and a victim of bullying at her new school.
Feeling isolated and lonely, she is befriended by Tom Hose (Robert Baker), the school’s security guard, who manages to lure Tanya to his home, where he held her captive and sexually abused her for over a decade.
Convinced he had Tanya brainwashed and that she would never attempt an escape, Tom eventually allows her to take on a part-time job. Out from under Tom’s watchful eye, Tanya finally finds the courage to take a dangerous step toward freedom.
Following the premiere, Lifetime will debut “Beyond the Headlines: The Tanya Kach Story with Elizabeth Smart.” The documentary follows executive producer Elizabeth Smart as she meets the real-life Tanya Kach, who had vanished from a Pittsburgh suburb at such a young age.
Debuting the next day, “Gaslit by My Husband: The Morgan Metzer Story,” based on a true story, follows Morgan (Jana Kramer) and Rodney Metzer (Austin Nichols), who were childhood sweethearts and married by the time Morgan was just 21 years old.
The couple loses their first child shortly after birth but are overjoyed when they have twins a year later. Tensions begin to rise when Rodney loses his job and goes into debt. He blames their fights on Morgan’s drinking and convinces his wife that she pushed him down the stairs in a blackout rage.
The couple finally separates and Morgan’s life turns around, until Rodney gets diagnosed with cancer. Not long after, a masked intruder breaks into Morgan’s home and assaults her.
Rodney suspiciously shows up only minutes after the intruder is gone. When authorities question him, Rodney’s story doesn’t seem to be adding up. Does Rodney really have cancer and is he the hero he claims to be, or has he been gaslighting Morgan for decades?
On June 15, “Yoga Teacher Killer: The Kaitlin Armstrong Story” is based on the true events of a deadly love triangle that led authorities on an international manhunt.
When pro-cyclist Moriah Wilson (Larissa Dias) is found dead after a short-lived affair with fellow professional Colin Strickland (Kyle Schmid), all signs point to Texan yoga teacher and Strickland’s on-and-off girlfriend Kaitlin Armstrong (Caity Lotz).
After being accused of allegedly killing Wilson in a jealous rage, Armstrong disappears into thin air. On the run, Armstrong alters her looks in attempts to elude the authorities as they work to track her down, leading them to places that they never expected to find her.
“Danger in the Dorm,” premiering on June 16, is inspired by one of Ann Rule’s earliest true crime works, which tells the story of Kathleen (Clara Alexandrova) after the tragic murder of her childhood best friend.
Kathleen must shed her rebellious youthful spirit in order to catch a killer who’s preying on young girls around campus, even as her mother Joanne (Bethenny Frankel), tries to protect her daughter from suffering the same fate as her friend.
Launching on June 22nd, “The Bad Orphan” is a psychological drama centered on Jessica (Betsy Brandt) and Karl (Mark Taylor), loving parents of Rhiannon (Eve Edwards), who after years of trying to add to their family are elated to adopt Gabby (Chloe Coco Chapman).
The girl is an 8-year-old orphan born with personal challenges. The idea of a perfect family comes into question when the parents discover that Gabby is a troubled little girl, and the family begins to believe things aren’t what they seem.
As the unsettling behavior of the orphan child worsens and lies are uncovered, cracks in the family dynamic form with Jessica becoming increasingly concerned that Gabby is a threat to their family.
Lifetime has had a track record of delivering powerful films based on true stories. “Prosecuting Casey Anthony,” starring Rob Lowe as the prosecutor in the famous murder trial, was particularly stunning for what led to the controversial verdict.
“Natalee Holloway,” based on her mother’s book “Loving Natalee,” was a truly heartbreaking story about the disappearance of the 18-year-old while on vacation in Aruba.
Part of next week’s column will conclude with the two remaining original Lifetime crime movies, ending most notably with Teri Hatcher’s as the titular character in “The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story.”
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
The Lifetime cable channel regularly churns out crime movies that are “Ripped from the Headlines,” and the month of June will feature more movies than normally, with the biggest star being Teri Hatcher in “The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story.”
Known for her television roles, Hatcher portrayed Lois Lane in the series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” followed later in the role of Susan Mayer in the long-running “Desperate Housewives” series. She was also Paris Carver in the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
A Lifetime movie will debut every Friday and Saturday in June beginning with “The Girl Locked Upstairs: The Tanya Katch Story” on Friday, June 8th. Tanya (Jordyn Ashley Olsen) was fourteen and at risk, struggling with an unhappy home life and a victim of bullying at her new school.
Feeling isolated and lonely, she is befriended by Tom Hose (Robert Baker), the school’s security guard, who manages to lure Tanya to his home, where he held her captive and sexually abused her for over a decade.
Convinced he had Tanya brainwashed and that she would never attempt an escape, Tom eventually allows her to take on a part-time job. Out from under Tom’s watchful eye, Tanya finally finds the courage to take a dangerous step toward freedom.
Following the premiere, Lifetime will debut “Beyond the Headlines: The Tanya Kach Story with Elizabeth Smart.” The documentary follows executive producer Elizabeth Smart as she meets the real-life Tanya Kach, who had vanished from a Pittsburgh suburb at such a young age.
Debuting the next day, “Gaslit by My Husband: The Morgan Metzer Story,” based on a true story, follows Morgan (Jana Kramer) and Rodney Metzer (Austin Nichols), who were childhood sweethearts and married by the time Morgan was just 21 years old.
The couple loses their first child shortly after birth but are overjoyed when they have twins a year later. Tensions begin to rise when Rodney loses his job and goes into debt. He blames their fights on Morgan’s drinking and convinces his wife that she pushed him down the stairs in a blackout rage.
The couple finally separates and Morgan’s life turns around, until Rodney gets diagnosed with cancer. Not long after, a masked intruder breaks into Morgan’s home and assaults her.
Rodney suspiciously shows up only minutes after the intruder is gone. When authorities question him, Rodney’s story doesn’t seem to be adding up. Does Rodney really have cancer and is he the hero he claims to be, or has he been gaslighting Morgan for decades?
On June 15, “Yoga Teacher Killer: The Kaitlin Armstrong Story” is based on the true events of a deadly love triangle that led authorities on an international manhunt.
When pro-cyclist Moriah Wilson (Larissa Dias) is found dead after a short-lived affair with fellow professional Colin Strickland (Kyle Schmid), all signs point to Texan yoga teacher and Strickland’s on-and-off girlfriend Kaitlin Armstrong (Caity Lotz).
After being accused of allegedly killing Wilson in a jealous rage, Armstrong disappears into thin air. On the run, Armstrong alters her looks in attempts to elude the authorities as they work to track her down, leading them to places that they never expected to find her.
“Danger in the Dorm,” premiering on June 16, is inspired by one of Ann Rule’s earliest true crime works, which tells the story of Kathleen (Clara Alexandrova) after the tragic murder of her childhood best friend.
Kathleen must shed her rebellious youthful spirit in order to catch a killer who’s preying on young girls around campus, even as her mother Joanne (Bethenny Frankel), tries to protect her daughter from suffering the same fate as her friend.
Launching on June 22nd, “The Bad Orphan” is a psychological drama centered on Jessica (Betsy Brandt) and Karl (Mark Taylor), loving parents of Rhiannon (Eve Edwards), who after years of trying to add to their family are elated to adopt Gabby (Chloe Coco Chapman).
The girl is an 8-year-old orphan born with personal challenges. The idea of a perfect family comes into question when the parents discover that Gabby is a troubled little girl, and the family begins to believe things aren’t what they seem.
As the unsettling behavior of the orphan child worsens and lies are uncovered, cracks in the family dynamic form with Jessica becoming increasingly concerned that Gabby is a threat to their family.
Lifetime has had a track record of delivering powerful films based on true stories. “Prosecuting Casey Anthony,” starring Rob Lowe as the prosecutor in the famous murder trial, was particularly stunning for what led to the controversial verdict.
“Natalee Holloway,” based on her mother’s book “Loving Natalee,” was a truly heartbreaking story about the disappearance of the 18-year-old while on vacation in Aruba.
Part of next week’s column will conclude with the two remaining original Lifetime crime movies, ending most notably with Teri Hatcher’s as the titular character in “The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story.”
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
- Details
- Written by: Tim Riley
‘FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA’ Rated R
The “Mad Max” universe, launched more than 40 years ago, has spawned a string of wildly successful action pictures based upon the exploits of the protagonist in a post-apocalyptic world filled with violence and mayhem.
The fifth film, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is a prequel to 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” where Charlize Theron’s Furiosa was joined by Tom Hardy’s Max for a road battle with warlord Immortan Joe.
As an origin story, the titular character in “Furiosa” is first seen as a spunky young girl (Alyla Browne), torn from her idyllic homeland called the “Green Place” by biker thugs under the command of Dementus (Chris Hemsworth).
After the abduction from the sanctuary, Furiosa’s mother (Charlee Fraser), bravely wielding a machete gives chase, taking out many bikers before suffering a grisly fate that drives her daughter’s relentless quest for revenge.
What follows for Furiosa, now captive in a dystopian world where survival of the fittest is not just some Darwinian theory, is avenging the brutal murder of her mother with a target on Dementus, that she carries into adulthood (Anya Taylor-Joy, filling the part for the balance of the film).
Having in mind to subjugate other criminal enclaves, Dementus launches an assault on the Citadel, ruled by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), that fails, and then ultimately delivers Furiosa to Joe. To avoid sexual advances, Furiosa cuts her hair and pretends to be male.
Coming into her own as a warrior, Furiosa escapes by hiding in a huge rig driven by Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), which allows for her to prove her worth as an ally in fending off endless attacks from vicious, heavily armed bikers.
As this film is a prequel, there is no Max in this “Mad Max Saga,” a role played by Mel Gibson for the first three films, but a future awaits where renegade warrior Furiosa will team up with Tom Hardy’s Max.
In reality, suspense is lacking to a certain extent with the knowledge that, no matter the dire situations in which Furiosa may fall, the heroine of the story will live to fight another day in her revenge quest.
Fans of the franchise will likely not be disappointed in “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” because what matters for writer and director George Miller is the sheer spectacle of protracted chases and amazing stunts.
‘THE VEIL’ ON FX NETWORK
In the international spy game, it often seems that the protagonists are plagued either by personal demons or conflicts in the workplace, or just maybe a combination of the two. But this was never an issue for James Bond.
In any case, FX Network’s spy thriller series “The Veil” explores the fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of cat and mouse where the threat of a nuclear attack on American shores must be averted.
Elisabeth Moss’ British MI6 agent Imogen Salter is on a mission that begins at a refugee camp on the border of Syria and Turkey where Yumna Marwan’s Adilah El Idrissi has been hiding out while holding on to a secret that could reveal the plans of a dangerous terrorist organization.
In the shadows, mission controllers at the CIA and the French intelligence service DGSE must work together, albeit with a lot of territorial conflict, to avert a potential disaster threatening untold number of lives on the East Coast.
During the winter press tour, FX’s panel discussion included Steve Knight, the executive producer and writer of the show, who made it known the idea came from a colleague who suggested the friction between allied intelligence agencies was fertile ground for a story.
In doing research for the series, Knight went to Paris, noting that in meeting three people in French intelligence” he found that “the true stories are much more compelling.”
Knight discovered that what appealed to him most is “when big, big international conflicts, events, boil down to individuals,” and that’s how “The Veil” is focused on “two people in a car driving through snow, and the nature of the conversations affects the outcome for thousands of people.”
We learn a lot about Imogen haunted by her past but doing great at her job, which is to figure out on the way back to Paris as to whether Adilah is someone who just wants to get home to her young daughter or is a pivotal member of a group planning a terror attack.
With Imogen and Adilah, the essence of their interaction is purely psychological. It’s only when CIA agent Max Peterson (Josh Charles) is on the scene to spar with French agent Malik Amar (Dali Benssalah) that the action expected in a spy thriller really takes hold.
Elisabeth Moss delivers a gripping performance and the exotic locales from Istanbul to Paris and London are stunning. “The Veil” demands an attentiveness on the part of the audience to follow the twists and turns of a relationship between two women on the edge.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
- Details
- Written by: Tim Riley
