***1/2 out of ****
Rated TV-MA
(for sexual abuse involving a minor, strong language)
Released: May 26, 2018
Runtime: 114 minutes
Directed by: Jennifer Fox
Starring: Laura Dern, Isabelle Nélisse, Jason Ritter, Elizabeth Debicki, Ellen Burstyn, Common

My review of The Tale, for The Tulsa Voice. Airing on HBO, it’s the deeply personal and revealing cinematic memoir about writer/director Jennifer Fox‘s experience of childhood sexual abuse.

Having opened to both raves and tears at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, The Tale stars Laura Dern as Fox’s surrogate in this fictionalized reflection on her traumatic past. It’s an unsettling, candid account about “coming to terms with repressed, hazy memories” of early-teen sexual abuse by an older man. Dern’s Jennifer goes on “an investigative journey to clarify the truth, discover its lingering ramifications, and confront them.”

“A personal reckoning that could trigger painful memories,” The Tale is necessarily provocative but also sensitive, a brave catharsis from a victim that could also help others.

To read my full review, click here.