Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from Sundance
Everyone knows the name Ted Bundy, but I’m not sure that everyone knows as much as they think they do about him. I certainly didn’t going into Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the Sundance premiere from director Joe Berlinger, an Oscar nominee back in 2011 for the documentary Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. The key curiousity here is the casting of Zac Efron, onetime star of High School Musical, as the notorious killer...
The film surprisingly plays out much like a farce, with Bundy being arrested early on for alleged crimes and spending pretty much the entire runtime standing trial in different states on multiple charges. Because he was a law student, Bundy was particularly interested in playing a role in his cases, while maintaining his innocence the entire time. When his most significant trial began, Bundy was described as a cowboy by the judge and often tried to make a mockery of the court and the charges in between the gruesome images shown by the prosecutor of the horrific crimes he committed. Those images would be much better described as “shockingly evil and vile” than the less meaningful “extremely wicked.”
The entire audience at a Sundance screening audibly laughed at several moments, notably the introduction of Jim Parsons as the Florida state prosecutor and John Malkovich as a judge. It’s not clear that these casting choices, and Efron’s, were meant to be humorous, yet it feels more than moderately insensitive to create a film that sometimes resembles a comedy, or at least a parody, when it deals with the violent murders of at least thirty people. Sure, there is room in the world for the The Death of Stalins and the Inglourious Basterds, but they’re not presented as biopics.
The film redeems itself somewhat with actual footage of Bundy that so incredibly resembles the scenes portrayed in the film. Efron’s performance, never quite believable, suddenly strikes a chord in retrospect, even if he might be described as more handsome and charming than the real Bundy. The mimicry of real life is impactful but it still doesn’t feel satisfying. Bundy put on an act for his whole life, and that's what the film shows. Still, a portrait of Bundy would have felt more complete had it explored those hidden, vicious moments behind the smiling for the camera.
Other Sundance 2019 Reviews
- Late Night starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling
- The Inventor from Oscar winning documentarian Alex Gibney
- Honey Boy starring Shia Labeouf and Noah Jupe
- After the Wedding starring Julianne Moore
- Premature from Rashaad Ernesto Green
- The Farewell starring Awkwafina