The Menendez Brothers

In 1989 two brothers killed their parents in their home in Beverly Hills. The trial that followed ran for years and was broadcast live across America; the first jury could not reach a verdict. At the second trial the defence's claims of abuse were largely excluded and the brothers were sentenced to life. The documentary rests on both of them speaking today. The subject is not the murders but the same event being told inside two different frames. In the nineties the case was read through greed; today the claim of abuse is placed at the centre. The film also examines why that changed: the language for talking about the abuse of boys did not exist then. The form is built on phone calls, archive broadcasts and court recordings. The brothers' voices come from prison and they do not appear on screen; two voices without images sit at the centre. Its timing is a separate matter. It was released in the same period as a fictional series about the same case, and how the two productions affected each other was argued over. The case returning to public attention coincided with this as well. Alejandro Hartmann directs. It was released on Netflix. Who it is for: viewers interested in true crime documentary and legal process. Who it is not for: anyone expecting neutrality; the film gives markedly more room to the defence's account.