Synopsis
An American Crime (2007) is Tommy O'Haver's crime drama you can watch online on iFILM. It reconstructs what happened over the summer of 1965 in an Indianapolis house, where struggling single mother Gertrude Baniszewski took in two teenage sisters as paying boarders.
When the money their parents promised stops arriving on schedule, Gertrude turns on sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens. It begins with nagging and a few slaps, then escalates to the basement, to starvation, to beatings she encourages her own kids and neighborhood boys to join. Catherine Keener plays her flat and ordinary, no villain's snarl, which is exactly what makes it sickening. Elliot Page plays Sylvia, a year ahead of Juno, and James Franco, Scott Eastwood and a very young Evan Peters pass through smaller roles.
The screenwriters built the timeline straight from the court record, and some of the closing exchanges come word for word from trial transcripts. It's a hard sit by design: the film doesn't manufacture suspense, it just watches an ordinary home become a place of torture. Best for viewers ready for blunt true crime with no swelling score to soften it. Stream An American Crime (2007) online on iFILM.
Starring
Comments 0