This movie is a documentary about a story that is so unlikely that if it was pitched as a movie, no studio would buy it – because nobody would believe it could happen.

The good news here is that this 2 hour documentary does hold your attention and the story is told in such a way that new and in some cases very surprising things happen that come out of nowhere and this even involves a government study that under the circumstances should have been prevented because it is illegal.

The three men who are subject if this film are identical triplets who were born on July 12, 1961 and later adopted about 6 months after they were born. How they discover each other is how the movie starts and is a very unlikely story. Soon after they find each other, they become Nationally famous, especially in the New York area – appearing on many talk shows – although I do not remember them from 30 years ago when this first happened.

This documentary has very high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes – 95%, and despite the very interesting story I thought this movie would have been better suited as a cable TV movie rather than a mainstream release.

Three Identical Strangers is a very well done documentary and I do recommend it.

About 2 months ago it was revealed that the medical device company Theranos, founded by entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes – was nothing more than company that scammed billions of dollars from very wealthy investors for years. A few days ago, I found that there has been a book written about this and there is already a movie that is planned starring Jennifer Lawrence – and directed by Adam McKay.

From the first day I heard about this amazing story of deception, I knew it would be a great subject for a major film – but I was very surprised at how quickly that story has been bought and is already in the planning stages and will be developed into a movie. A few days ago, I bought the book on Amazon. Here is the link for those who are interested:

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

The link to the movie – now in the planning stages:

Bad Blood – IMDB

There have been a number of movies I have seen over recent years with the same general theme of the new movie “Leave No Trace”. There are adults in a family who decide to live in the woods or homeless and they do this despite the fact that they have a child or several children. Leave No Trace is a true story of a war Veteran who decides he would rather live in an Oregon forest near a city and he takes his 15 year old daughter along for the ride. As I have said before in this blog, if you’re an adult and want to live homeless or in the woods, then that is the decision you have made in your life. If you also have a child you either forego your idea of wilderness life or give up your child for adoption. Its that simple. Its just unfair to the life of the child.

The reality of this story is that despite living in the woods for much of her life the teenage daughter – strangely named Tom – has been extremely well educated by her father. Tom is played extremely well by Thomasin McKenzie and there is talk of an Academy Award nomination for her because of this role – an opinion I agree with due to her natural acting ability. Her father Will, played very well by Ben Foster seems to be in a depressed coma for much of this film – and what bothered me is why he decided to live in the woods like this with his daughter. I thought this was a question that needed to be asked, especially given that there were so many opportunities to ask him why he wants to live in the woods. I consider this a major flaw in the movie.

The Rotten Tomatoes review for this movie are an extremely high 100% – but for me I thought this movie was at best a 75%, due to parts that dragged on too long and a story that while interesting, mostly because it is true, was rather depressing.

Overall I do recommend Leave No Trace.