Capote

Truman Capote reads about a family murdered in Kansas in 1959, travels there, and finds not only the biggest book of his career but a years-long relationship with one of the killers. The real subject is the duplicity of that relationship: Capote dreads the execution and needs it, because his book cannot end without it. Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor for it, along with the Golden Globe and BAFTA. Catherine Keener plays Harper Lee, his childhood friend who helped with the research, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. It is Bennett Miller's first feature. He took the Gotham Breakthrough Director award and a Directors Guild nomination, and the film collected five Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. Infamous, covering the same story from a different angle, arrived in 2006. The two were in cinemas almost together, and Capote won on both critics and box office. Made for 7 million dollars, it grossed 49.9 million worldwide. Who it is for: anyone interested in the ethics of writing about real people. Who it is not for: viewers wanting a murder thriller. The film examines the man writing the crime, not the crime.