"Based on Mostly True Events."
Okay, what the Hell does that mean? Is that like the Mostly Peaceful BLM / Antifa protests in 2020? Cue the flaming police cars; smashed retail windows; and outnumbered police officers in riot gear?
Am seeing that phrase more and more on dramatizations of supposed real events. Let's assume "Black Bird" is a true story, and review the movie.
Taron Egerton plays Jimmy Keene, a mid-level Chicago drug dealer, who gets picked up on a gun charge. He's tossed into a medium level security prison for ten years after the D.A. sandbags him with a phony plea deal.
On a parallel track in nearby Indiana, uber creep, Larry Hall is bumping off nubile young (14 y/o) girls at an alarming rate. He's arrested on a single murder charge, but the Feds suspect multiple killings accredited to Hall. They want the bodies' burial locations.
To get his sentence commuted, Keene has to agree to be transferred to a maximum security prison; win the confidence of the violently insane Hall; and charm the grave sites out of him.
What could go wrong?
Plenty.
The obstacles include Keene's neglectful father, played by an obviously very sick Ray Liotta. Mobster-on-the-inside, Vincent "The Chin" Gigante. And a corrupt prison guard with a gambling problem, Joe Williamson as Correctional Officer Carter.
D.A. Beaumont, an excellent Robert Wisdom (POC Alert! POC Alert! POC Alert! POC Alert! POC Alert! POC Alert!), is also causing Keene to stumble as Beaumont refuses to look at any new evidence of Hall's killings provided by the local Sheriff (Greg Kinnear), and his liaison FBI agent, for who(m) I cannot find a credit, but she is a POC!
Alert! Alert! Alert!
Black Bird is a limited series, but it's good and suspenseful to the very last minute.
Will Keene get a confession and information on Hall's previous kills, or will the uber-smart serial killer sniff out the ploy?
APPLE TV