NZ International Film Festival review: Kate Plays Christine

  • 27/07/2016
Kate Plays Christine has previously played at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals
Kate Plays Christine has previously played at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals

By Cushla Lewis

"If there's anything that leaves a sour taste in my mouth, its failure," quotes actor Kate Lyn Sheil while playing herself, playing the part of journalist Christine Chubbuck.

Chubbuck took her own life during a live on-air broadcast back in the 1970s while working as a journalist and anchor in Sarasota, Florida.

Kate Lyn Sheil (The Colour Wheel, House of Cards) attempts to tell Chubbuck's story, to try to make sense of what mental condition could have driven this young woman to commit such a shockingly public suicide.

A lack of actual footage or even photographs of Chubbuck make this character immersion a difficult and drawn-out task, making this less a true document of events and more of a performance piece.

A small tease of the real Christine Chubbuck conducting an interview is truly fascinating, and left me wanting to see more. But there were no interviews with family, or anyone close to her, despite mentioning she had parents and at least one brother.

Only near the end of the film work colleagues introduced who spoke of being in the studio when Chubbuck tragically killed herself.

As the final credits rolled, I knew more about the actor Sheil but still very little about the actual central character of Chubbuck. Like the actor playing oneself being someone else, it appeared the documentary was playing at being a documentary.

There are moments of glory and fans of filmmaker Robert Greene should not be disappointed.

But while the takes on what Chubbuck would have been like physically and mentally is at times convincing, it felt somewhat fake and uncomfortably forced at times.

Overall, Kate Plays Christine left me wanting more of the facts, not just a version of them.

Two-and-a-half stars.

This film is playing as part of the 2016 New Zealand International Film Festival.

     Kate Plays Christine:: Director: Robert Greene:: Starring: Kate Lyn Sheil, Stephanie Coatney, Michael Ray Davis, Zachary Gossel, Holland Hayes, David Mackey, Linda Roser, Mike Rubino. Marty Stonerock, Steve Zurk:: Rating: Exempt:: Running Time: 112 minutes

Reviewed by Cushla Lewis / Newshub.