Rating: 
Summary: Almost As Good As A Train Wreck
Review: Documentarian Nick Broomfield has crafted a low-budget and somewhat choppy view of serial killer Aileen Wuornos life "after" she is incarcerated. There is little discussion about whom she murdered or exactly for what reasons other than Ms. Wuornos claim of `self-defense'. Although it can be interesting to see the large range of human reactions from Ms. Wuornos, there is little insight as to her motives. The big stars here are the putrid, immoral folks who befriend her `in her best interest'. Enter her absolutely beyond sleazy attorney `born-again' Christian lawyer. Ms. Wuornos even has a middle-aged woman adopt her and despite her cutesy attitude, it becomes clear she is a moronic minded scammer as well. Both the lawyer and the adoptive parent are out to make money on the selling of movie rights of their `client' and `daughter'. The only thing more sickening is the revelation that several local police are also into `cashing in' on movie rights. This is a tale of greed and dehumanization; not necessarily a story on a female serial killer. It is not the least bit pleasant, nor does it contain any useful message, other than people can be cruel. In this case, one wonders who is the cruelest of all.
There are no extras - that, in itself, is a plus.
Rating:
Summary: Almost As Good As A Train Wreck
Review: Documentarian Nick Broomfield has crafted a low-budget and somewhat choppy view of serial killer Aileen Wuornos life "after" she is incarcerated. There is little discussion about whom she murdered or exactly for what reasons other than Ms. Wuornos claim of 'self-defense'. Although it can be interesting to see the large range of human reactions from Ms. Wuornos, there is little insight as to her motives. The big stars here are the putrid, immoral folks who befriend her 'in her best interest'. Enter her absolutely beyond sleazy attorney 'born-again' Christian lawyer. Ms. Wuornos even has a middle-aged woman adopt her and despite her cutesy attitude, it becomes clear she is a moronic minded scammer as well. Both the lawyer and the adoptive parent are out to make money on the selling of movie rights of their 'client' and 'daughter'. The only thing more sickening is the revelation that several local police are also into 'cashing in' on movie rights. This is a tale of greed and dehumanization; not necessarily a story on a female serial killer. It is not the least bit pleasant, nor does it contain any useful message, other than people can be cruel. In this case, one wonders who is the cruelest of all.
There are no extras - that, in itself, is a plus.
Rating: 
Summary: very disappointing
Review: i had heard great things about this one. mr bromfield apparantly did not have enough good footage to make up a complete documentary and the result here feels terribly padded (ie. the interview with a man who says he didn't know ms wurnos much at all. so what is he going to contribute to the film, dare i ask?) though the characters of the adoptive mother and expecially the loony lawyer are interesing, the whole film feels very off center. so much time is wasted on conversations about how much to pay whom , and trying to get an interview to be turned down, that the film is more about trying to make a film than about aileen or the people using her for their own gain. the narration is unnecessary and extremely annoying, either pointing out the obvious ("but he locked the door...") or covering up the interview. two far better documentaries (both made by berlinger and sinofsky) are 'brothers keeper' and 'paradise lost'. both expore media influence on the justice system and are far more engaging, moving, meaningful, and insightful.
Rating:
Summary: not real great
Review: i have to second the person who was annoyed by the narrator's voice. geez louise. i don't know what it was. maybe that i'm watching a documentary taking place in florida and there's a british accent all over it. it just didn't work. again and again broomfield narrarated over aileen speaking or a judge speaking or some main character, and i was way more interested in hearing what the character had to say rather than what broomfield had to say. he chose some pretty odd times to speak over the characters and it was terribly annoying. maybe he should have spoken over the lawyer's too frequent guitar playing instead. also broomfield made himself part of the story there toward the end, giving one of the main subjects a piece of his mind -- then later sharing that exchange with aileen. leave yourself out of it, i say! it skews the whole thing and you aren't part of the aileen wuornos story. anyway, any logical viewer could have already decided that the adoptive mother was pulling a fast one. i wholeheartedly agreed with what broomfield called/said to the adoptive mother, but it still didn't belong in the "documentary." not to duplicate other posts, but there is an awful lot of padding for lack of real substance. also, nearly every person involved in the actual story who could have made the "documentary" good, refused to talk to broomfield. i honestly felt like the whole doc seemed like a project that a highschool student would have turned in to the teacher. i'm no documentary pro (though i watch a lot of them), but this sort of "documentary" must require some kind of budget -- money talks and the critical people would have talked for the right price. otherwise what's the point of distributing let alone making the documentary? on a side note, it did leave me feeling the same way Monster did though, incredibly sympathetic toward wuornos and with the distinct feeling that she was treated unfairly. granted, she killed people, but she's still a person who i think was driven to that point by no fault of her own.
Rating:
Summary: It was Okay, could been better.
Review: I thought we would see more about Aileen life, especially when she was younger and what cause her to killed but we see mostly her lawyer and her adoptive mother. I found it very barbaric to still killed people in the electric chairs, I cannot beleive they still do this and especially for Ailleen Wuornos, who would not want to kill someone who rape you and torture you, she said she did it for self-defense...well so many men it kinna odd but who know it maybe true. I don't say I approuve of what she did, of course not, it not right to killed but it sure not right to killed her too. It obvious she got emotional problems and killing her is not the solution, God society is sick. Her adoptive mother seem like a loony, she said she love Aileen so much but she want her to die for her sins, she cannot take another trial, wow how motherly she is. She live a tragic life and she had a tragic death, I find all this very sad.
Rating:
Summary: It was Okay, could been better.
Review: I thought we would see more about Aileen life, especially when she was younger and what cause her to killed but we see mostly her lawyer and her adoptive mother. I found it very barbaric to still killed people in the electric chairs, I cannot beleive they still do this and especially for Ailleen Wuornos, who would not want to kill someone who rape you and torture you, she said she did it for self-defense...well so many men it kinna odd but who know it maybe true. I don't say I approuve of what she did, of course not, it not right to killed but it sure not right to killed her too. It obvious she got emotional problems and killing her is not the solution, God society is sick. Her adoptive mother seem like a loony, she said she love Aileen so much but she want her to die for her sins, she cannot take another trial, wow how motherly she is. She live a tragic life and she had a tragic death, I find all this very sad.
Rating: 
Summary: Astonishing Documentary
Review: Potential viewers turned off by the subject matter should be apprised that the murders committed by Aileen Wuornos are not shown, not dwelled upon, and not the main interest of this film; Broomfield is more interested in focusing upon the gallery of eccentrics, lunatics, and con men who have descended upon the imprisoned Wuornos to profit from her notoriety. Serious questions are raised by the conduct of her lawyer, a fringe-type who, here, is more interested in playing his folk songs on the guitar (presumably dreaming that this documentary will earn him a wider audience) than he is in fighting for his client; the thunderbolt that he was not licensed to actually defend a client in court is enough to make you realize that Wuornos, whatever her crimes, was entitled to more. By the time Wuornos appears for a brief interview at film's end, she emerges as the most sympathetic character in the film! Broomfield, who also made quality documentaries about Heidi Fleiss and Courtney Love, is no shallow celebrity-chaser; he has a genuine talent for getting people to reveal their true souls on film, often to their extreme detriment -- but to the benefit of the truth that may have been overlooked by more conventional news coverage. Nobody could have made up this stuff -- and it is frequently very, very funny.
Rating: 
Summary: Important if flawed documentary
Review: Right up front I should tell anyone reading this that I was one of three defense attorneys who represented Ms. Wuornos in her first trial in Deland, Florida, before "Dr. Legal" took her case over and pled her to death while comparing himself to Dr. Kevorkian. I should also let on that I am deeply saddened at the fact that yesterday she was executed in large part so the President's brother could get reelected Governor of this fine State.
Having gotten that out of the way, I can say that I have viewed this film several times, and it is fascinating. Somehow Mr. Broomfield manages to show Aileen exactly as she was, but at the same time makes you feel sorry for her as the people she trusts continually try to sell her out to make money from her story. It is also at times darkly humorous. You may never see an odder assemblage of real people. I have met all of them and can assure you that what you see is an accurate view.
I do have some minor quibbles. One of them involves the obvious shoestring budget. While it can lend an air of authenticity, at times it simply appears to be amateurish. Of greater concern to me was the voice over as the final credits roll wherein Broomfield seems to be dismayed that we (the Marion County Public Defender's Office)didn't return his calls. I would have thought that, since his thesis was that everyone was trying to cash in on the Wuornos story, he would have thought it admirable that we chose not to speak to people making a movie about our client.
Nonetheless I highly recommend this film. A lot can be learned about our society from watching it.
Rating:
Summary: retrial!!!
Review: Tabloid documentarian Nick Broomfield (yeah, the same guy who did the Heidi Fleiss pic) obliviously went into this project with the intention of exploring/exploiting (your call) then-interest in the woman who was erroneously being hailed as "America's first serial killer." When it became apparent that he wasn't going to have much access to Wuornos or to first-person accounts of the events leading up to her arrest (there seems to be some evidence she was railroaded), Broomfield simply shifted his attention to the money-grubbing folks around Wuornos (a sleazy lawyer, an opportunistic "fan" who actually adopted her, a former john, corrupt cops), turning his "how-I-didn't-get-that-story" into a tut-tutting tirade about how everyone was exploiting poor Wuornos for their own gain. An ironic premise, to say the least--considering that's exactly what Broomfield was doing himself. Still, fascinating in its own odd way (to pad his skimpy newly-shot Wuornos interviews, Broomfield hauls in everything from old TV newscast footage to a human "bomb" who denotates himself for the amusement of patrons at a bar Wuornos once frequented!). But when all is said and done, Broomfield comes off looking every bit as scummy as the people he purports to expose--actually even scummier, due to his sanctimonious attitude. Onscreen, at least, justice is served.
Rating:
Summary: In which our hero loses his rag!
Review: the subject is of the sort that has become cynically debased on tawdry daytime chatshows - the 'world's first serial killer' is turned in by her lover, adopted by a fervant Christian, persuaded to file a no-contest plea - but the treatment is an accumulatively scathing look at the US justice and legal system, the police and the media. Like most 'post-modern' documentary makers, Nick Broomfield doesn't pretend that he is a distant observer - he puts himself and his equipment in the picture; and, in one way, the process of making the documentary IS the documentary: the financial wrangles with Aileen's self-appointed guardians; the inability to get an interview with the police etc. Among the shocking things that emerge include: an (alleged) deal between the police and Aileen's lover to profit on movie deals; the persuading of Aileen by her adoptive mother and her lawyer to confess so as to increase her marketability as a serial killer, despite Aileen's (not unjustified) claims that the killings were in self-defence. this 'self-reflexivity' doesn't try to modishly undermine the documentary form - it gives the viewer a heightened awareness of the media, the way it tries to manipulate stories for various interests. When we finally get to meet Aileen - having seen her filtered through others' so-called personal testomonies, news reports, hearsay, speculation, official videos of statements, confessions and trials - the impact is winding. Rather than unveiling the 'truth', Broomfield, like Errol Morris in the similar 'The thin blue line', succeeds in casting doubt on received and official truths. This is also one of the best films about US 'trash' culture; or, more precisely, a culture that turns all humanity to trash. The fact that this all takes place in Florida gives the film a contemporary resonance, especially the nauseating, 'Rebecca'-like scene, where an state execution is described in all its technical chill, a ghostly premonition of future horrors.
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