True Stories
True Stories are those based (sometimes loosely!) on fact. They cover topics as diverse as drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness and other human struggles. Meet some of history's most intriguing characters, find out what it's really like to climb a mountain or paint a masterpiece. Truly, the True Story is one of cinema's most engaging and enthralling genres.
Bio-pics feature in this section and are also gathered together separately under the 'Biography' sublink left.
Pictured: Inside the Las Vegas mob, Scorsese's unromantic 'Goodfellas'
The Grandmaster ( Blu-ray ) (2013)
6.6/10
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Starring: Tony Leung (Chiu Wai), Zhang Ziyi
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, THE GRANDMASTER is an epic action feature inspired by the life and times of the legendary Kung FU master... Read more
The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999)
6/10
Director: Christopher Menaul
Starring: Eric Stoltz, Helen Mirren, Julie Delpy, Peter Fonda
The rather eccentric (especially in her thinking) author of "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" becomes involved with a much younger, and married... Read more
Adrift (Blu-Ray) (2018)
6.7/10
Director: Baltasar Kormakur, Baltasar Kormakur
Starring: Elizabeth Hawthorne, Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin, Grace Palmer
Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp couldn't anticipate that they would be sailing directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history... Read more
The Big Sick (Blu-ray) (2017)
7.6/10
Director: Michael Showalter
Starring: Holly Hunter, Zoe Kazan, Kumail Nanjiani, Ray Romano
Kumail is a Pakistani comic who meets an American graduate student named Emily at one of his stand-up shows. As their relationship blossoms, he soon b... Read more
Isabelle Eberhardt (1991)
5.9/10
Director: Ian Pringle
Starring: Mathilda May, Tcheky Karyo, Peter O'Toole
The story of a young woman journalist who becomes enmeshed in the politics of the annexation of Morrocco from Algeria at the turn of the twentieth cen... Read more
Into the Wild (2007)
8.1/10
Director: Sean Penn
Starring: Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook, Marcia Gay Harden, Vince Vaughn, William Hurt, E...
Sean Penn scripted and directed this engrossing drama based on Jon Krakauer's best-selling book chronicling the true-life adventures of Christopher Mc... Read more
In the Heart of the Sea (Blu-ray) (2015)
6.9/10
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland
In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an al... Read more
Zero Dark Thirty ( Blu-ray ) (Copy) (2012)
7.4/10
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke
Controversial military thriller from director Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker") about the mission by American special operations forces to capture o... Read more
12 Years a Slave ( Blu-ray ) (2013)
8.1/10
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mic...
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Read more
Cry Freedom (Blu-Ray) (1987)
7.5/10
Director: Richard Attenborough
Starring: Kevin Kline, Penelope Wilton, Denzel Washington
Donald Woods is chief editor at the liberal newspaper `Daily Dispatch' in South Africa. He has written several editorials critical of the views of Ste... Read more