There’s no easy or fun or quick or flashy way to lead off a story about Amy Berg‘s phenomenal documentary, West of Memphis. The film is crushing and wrenching and frequently hard to watch, but that’s fully in service to its subject matter; chronicling the unbelievable story of the West Memphis 3, Berg keenly cuts to the heart of the matter of one of America’s most stunning and complete miscarriages of justice. It’s just a heartbreaker, all-around, and the film’s latest trailer doesn’t shy away from that.
The film was one of my favorites out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival and, back then, I wrote about it: “West of Memphis serves as an illuminating look inside the entire West Memphis 3 ordeal, from crime to trial to freedom, and all of the infuriating twists and turns in between. It’s an emotional journey, one that will alternately rile and move its audience. Berg’s access to people and evidence positively crams the film with new interviews and material that will stun even those previously educated about the case.” Get a taste of that with the new trailer for West of Memphis, after the break.
West of Memphis opens in limited release on December 25th. [Apple]