--- title: "Christine" year: 2016 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/christine" fi1m_score: 68 critics_score: 64 critics_reviews: 24 published: "2026-09-17T12:46:42.289469+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T12:47:02.897022+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Christine (2016) Directed by António Campos · 2h 03m · MPA R · Drama **Fi1m score: 68** · Critics 64 from 24 reviews *In a sentence:* Two hours of Rebecca Hall trying to be liked by people who have already decided; we could not stop watching > Rebecca Hall is remarkable as the Florida news reporter Christine Chubbuck, prickly, funny and slowly coming apart. António Campos’s film is careful and humane, but it keeps handing us reasons for her unhappiness, and the sum is smaller than the performance. ## Synopsis Sarasota, Florida, the summer of 1974. Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall) is a reporter at a small local television station, filing human-interest segments about strawberry farmers and zoning meetings and wanting badly to be taken seriously. Her station manager, Michael (Tracy Letts), wants crashes and fires on the evening news and tells her so. The anchor, George Peter Ryan (Michael C. Hall), is kind to her in a way she reads as more than kindness. She lives with her mother, Peg (J. Smith-Cameron), performs puppet shows for children at a hospital, and is due to see Dr Parsons (Morgan Spector) about a pain she has been ignoring. Word arrives that the station’s owner, Bob Andersen (John Cullum), is looking for staff to promote to a bigger market. ## Review António Campos’s film follows Christine Chubbuck, a reporter at a small television station in Sarasota, Florida, through the summer of 1974. Anyone who knows the name knows how her story ends, and the film assumes we do; we will not describe it. What Campos and his writer Craig Shilowich have made instead is a study of the weeks before, of a serious, awkward, ambitious woman being quietly refused by nearly everyone she asks. It is held together by Rebecca Hall, who is superb, and it is a good film that is not quite the one her performance deserves. Hall plays Christine tall and stiff, chin down, with a laugh that arrives half a beat after everyone else’s. She interviews a strawberry farmer for a segment on zoning and then argues with her boss about whether it counted as news. She practises interview questions to an empty chair. What Hall does that a lesser actor would not is let Christine be difficult: she is humourless about her work, quick to take offence, and right more often than the men around her care to notice. We watched her try to accept a compliment from George (Michael C. Hall) and felt our shoulders lock. That is the performance: a woman doing the small social sums other people do without thinking, and getting them nearly right. Tracy Letts plays Michael, the station manager, as a tired bully who wants blood on the six o’clock news and thinks he is only being practical. Michael C. Hall gives George a smooth kindness that does not know its own limits. Maria Dizzia’s Jean is the one colleague who sees Christine clearly, and Timothy Simons’s weatherman Steve wanders the newsroom like a man who has never had a bad day. The newsroom scenes are the liveliest in the film and often funny, in the way offices are funny, and we laughed and then felt slightly ashamed, because we knew who the joke would eventually be about. J. Smith-Cameron, as Christine’s mother Peg, has the hardest scenes and plays them without a note of pleading. Joe Anderson shoots in muted browns and yellows, with a soft grain that makes the picture look like the station’s own tape, and he keeps the camera a little way off, so Christine is often alone in a doorway or at the edge of a room other people are filling. Scott Kuzio’s newsroom is wood panelling, plastic chairs, ashtrays and a monitor wall that never quite works. Emma Potter dresses Christine in high collars and long skirts among colleagues in open shirts; you could read her whole trouble from the costumes alone. Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans keep the score to a low, uneasy hum under scenes that look ordinary on the surface, and the soft rock on the car radio does the rest. Sofía Subercaseaux cuts the workdays briskly and the evenings at home slowly, which is the right way round. The trouble is that Shilowich’s script keeps handing us reasons. A promotion that might go to somebody else. A doctor’s appointment with news she did not want. A man she likes who likes someone else. Each is placed in the story like a weight on a scale, and by the second hour we could feel the film totting them up. Depression does not work like a sum, and Hall knows it; her Christine is unhappy in scenes where nothing at all has gone wrong. The film around her is less sure of that, and it fills the gaps with plot. Then there is the last quarter of an hour, which we will not describe except to say that the film has to decide how much to show and for how long, and does not entirely make up its mind. The dread as it approaches is real; we sat still and did not want to be there. What we felt afterwards was unease at ourselves, for having waited for it, and we are not sure whether the film meant to produce that or simply did. Sidney Lumet’s [*Network*](https://film.one/film/network) (1976) took the same decade’s newsrooms and made them loud and monstrous. Campos goes the other way and makes them small, cheap and ordinary, and that is the right instinct for this story. See it for Hall, and see it at home, where its quietness reads as care rather than caution. It runs 123 minutes and reached British cinemas on 27 January 2017. *Fi1m score 68, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (24) - **Screen Daily** (90/100, inferred): Campos delivers a devastating portrait of a woman drowning, with a magnificent performance from Rebecca Hall as the clear highlight and a sensitive exploration of depression and helplessness. The entire ensemble shines in this stripped-down but deeply sympathetic drama. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/christine-sundance-review/5099241.article) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (85/100, inferred): Antonio Campos gives the true story of the American TV news reporter who killed herself on air its second, superior big-screen telling. Rebecca Hall is extraordinary as the troubled Christine, with the film an elegant, achingly sad study of debilitating depression that confirms Campos as one of the most intelligent filmmakers in US indie cinema. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/29/christine-review-antonio-campos-rebecca-hall-christine-chubbuck) - **IndieWire**, Noel Murray (80/100, inferred): The review calls Rebecca Hall's performance mesmerizing and praises the film's vivid and intense qualities as a festival entry. It positions the biopic as a compelling, if challenging, look at its subject's tragic story. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/sundance-review-antonio-campos-christine-starring-a-mesmerizing-rebecca-hall-is-vivid-intense-86145/) - **Little White Lies**, Christina Newland (3/4/3): Campos humanises Chubbuck with fierce empathy through a portrait of her mental health decline. Rebecca Hall delivers a career-best performance as a physical manifestation of interior torment. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/christine) - **The Telegraph** (4/5): The story of Christine Chubbuck is shocking and unfathomably sad, but the film spends time exploring her professional struggles at the news station. Rebecca Hall gives a star turn of huge sensitivity as a crumbling person rather than a concept. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2017/01/26/christine-review-rebecca-hall-gives-star-turn-woman-freefall/) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (75/100, inferred): The critic praises Rebecca Hall’s nuanced and intense performance as Christine Chubbuck while noting director Antonio Campos’ restrained approach that avoids exploiting the tragedy. The film is described as a thoughtful reflection on life’s cruelties, media sensationalism and attitudes towards women. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/christine-2-review/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (75/100, inferred): The critic highlights Rebecca Hall's fearless, awkward performance as the film's central strength in this chilly, ironic character study of an unstable newscaster. While noting some tonal uncertainty in the first hour, the review praises the unblinking yet understated portrayal of her professional drive and fatalistic awakening. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/rebecca-hall-christine-sundance-review-858756/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (70/100, inferred): Rebecca Hall delivers a brilliant central performance in this skillfully unnerving drama that drifts alongside its subject through the hell of her last weeks. Campos builds a persuasive if not airtight case for why Chubbuck decided on her shocking course of action while examining image consumption in the pre-digital era. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-christine-review-20161017-snap-story.html) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (70/100, inferred): Antonio Campos’s film tells the sad story of Christine Chubbuck through a startling portrait by Rebecca Hall of a dissatisfied soul struggling in her career and personal life. Campos’s direction is alert but restrained and honors her memory by refusing to feed the craving for sensation. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/christine-2) - **Radio Times**, Trevor Johnston (3/5): The sympathetic portrait focuses on Chubbuck's emotional and professional turmoil rather than the incident itself, with a mesmerising Rebecca Hall performance. There's still something uncomfortable and perhaps exploitative here despite the good intentions. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-m8hl9a/christine/) - **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (50/100, inferred): Rebecca Hall gives a thoroughly possessed performance that draws viewers into the period drama about the TV reporter's final weeks. The director visualizes her isolation persuasively but the film lacks feeling or depth and fails to explain why she pulls the trigger. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/movies/christine-review-rebecca-hall.html) - **Film Comment**, Michael Sragow (30/100, inferred): The film fails to gel or clarify its points about a woman's pressures and media sensationalism, coming across as a blood-streaked blur despite compelling moments. Hall's performance is strong but does not reach greatness, and the movie does not fully illuminate the character's inner world. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/deep-focus-christine/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Sheila O'Malley (30/100, inferred): The film centers on a riveting performance by Rebecca Hall as Christine Chubbuck that insightfully captures untreated depression and its effects. While the production recreates the 1970s period effectively, the movie does not quite add up and ends on a tepid note. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/christine-2016) - **Slant Magazine**, Matt Brennan (30/100, inferred): The critic argues that the film largely fails to animate Christine Chubbuck’s inner turmoil, instead focusing on broad externalities and flattening her into a cliché. It singles out the exploitative nature of the climax as the film's real raison d’être, ultimately deeming the approach shallow and dishonoring to its subject. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/christine/) - **Time Out**, Joshua Rothkopf (30/100, inferred): The film reduces Rebecca Hall to a collection of glares in a weak dramatisation that feels like a snuff version of Anchorman. It spends unseemly time on the gunshot footage and fails to earn its terrible ending. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/christine) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (90/100, inferred): Pete Hammond hails Rebecca Hall's Oscar-worthy, towering performance as the fragile reporter Christine Chubbuck in this character study. He singles out for praise her interior, non-melodramatic capture of the woman's essence and the film's wryly amusing depiction of 1970s local TV news. [Read](https://deadline.com/2016/10/christine-review-rebecca-hall-is-oscar-worthy-as-local-news-reporter-on-the-edge-1201834927/) - **The Playlist**, The Playlist Staff (B+): The film is a vivid and intense character study and masterful piece of filmmaking thanks to Rebecca Hall's mesmerizing performance, which captures psychological depth and honors the real person behind the infamous act. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/sundance-review-antonio-campos-christine-starring-a-mesmerizing-rebecca-hall-is-vivid-intense-20160127/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the careful scripting that avoids clichés and allows sympathy for the character even in unpleasant moments, while highlighting Rebecca Hall's intense, unflinching performance as a woman desperate for connection who gradually implodes. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/christine-2016-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **HeyUGuys**, Nathan McVay (4/5): Rebecca Hall shines in a haunting, slow-burn retelling of Christine Chubbuck's life and decline, delivering a revelation of a performance in this emotionally powerful true story about mental health and journalism. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/christine-review/) - **The Wrap**, Robert Abele (70/100, inferred): The critic praises Rebecca Hall's commanding, career-best performance as Christine Chubbuck, noting the film's bleak, unsentimental tone balanced by her psychologically astute portrait. The one thing singled out for praise is Hall's mesmerizing and humanizing portrayal. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/christine-review-rebecca-hall-chubbuck/) - **Paste**, Kenji Fujishima (6.3/10): Campos’s docudrama exerts a queasy fascination and features a genuinely compelling central figure thanks to Rebecca Hall, even if it doesn’t fully dispel doubts about fictional biopics. The director loosens up stylistically with jaunty montages and an upbeat score. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/christine/christine) - **Consequence** (60/100, inferred): Rebecca Hall is riveting in a depiction of depression that avoids clichés by approaching it from a lighter, brighter angle with ’70s soft rock and intentional laughs in the first half. Subplots and an overlong runtime undercut the strong start and central performance. [Read](https://consequence.net/2016/01/sundance-film-review-christine/) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (40/100, inferred): The film fails to find a fresh angle on Christine Chubbuck's tragic story or build meaningfully on her choices, instead reducing her to a victim of mental illness and circumstance. Rebecca Hall delivers an incredible lead performance full of sympathy. [Read](https://collider.com/christine-review-rebecca-hall-chubbuck/) - **The Skinny**, Tom Charles (★★): Rebecca Hall delivers an impressive and unsettling performance as Christine Chubbuck, making the character feel fully lived in. The director never quite gets to grips with the subject, failing to commit to a clear focus amid attempts at tension and social commentary. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/christine) ## Details - **Director:** António Campos - **Director:** António Campos - **Writer:** Craig Shilowich - **Cinematography:** Joe Anderson - **Editor:** Sofía Subercaseaux - **Music:** Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans - **Production design:** Scott Kuzio - **Costume design:** Emma Potter - **Producer:** Melody C. Roscher, Craig Shilowich - **Cast:** Rebecca Hall as Christine Chubbuck; Michael C. Hall as George Peter Ryan; Tracy Letts as Michael; Maria Dizzia as Jean Reed; J. Smith-Cameron as Peg Chubbuck; Timothy Simons as Steve Turner; Kim Shaw as Andrea Kirby; John Cullum as Bob Andersen - **Runtime:** 2h 03m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 14 October 2016 - **Genres:** Drama - **Box office:** $313,465 - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwo_V3SiQHY ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - Tubi: free, hd - The Roku Channel: free, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd - Apple TV: buy $9.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, FI, GB, GR, HK, HU, IE, IL, IN, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, SE, SG, TH, UA, US, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Network* (1976), Fi1m 86: The same decade’s television news, played as satire rather than tragedy, and still alarming. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/network.md) - *Kate Plays Christine* (2016): A documentary about an actor preparing to play Chubbuck; the film’s uneasy twin. - *Broadcast News* (1987), Fi1m 84: A newsroom comedy that takes the work seriously and the people more so. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/broadcast-news.md) - *Melancholia* (2011), Fi1m 80: Depression from the inside, with Kirsten Dunst refusing to make it pretty. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/melancholia.md) - *The Assassination of Richard Nixon* (2004): Sean Penn as another 1970s nobody sliding towards a public act. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/christine