Peter Jackson, 1994 (8*)
This is one of the more compelling docudramas of a true crime you will see. The film is an early one for director Peter Jackson, and is the first film for Kate Winslet - I believe she was 17 at the time. You could already see that she was going to have major impact as an actress; at one point she even sings an aria to the sunrise. This story involves two teenage girls who gradually withdraw into a fantasy world of their own creation, involving princes and knights and they, of course, are damsels in distress. One girl’s parents think they are spending an inordinate amount of time together, especially for conservative New Zealand. What follows became a “crime of the century”, and the subsequent trial had reporters from all over the world attending, as big in its day as the O.J. trial for our generation. Gripping and emotionally brutal, not for the squeamish.