I’m adding “Shattered Glass” to my Movies You Might Not Know list.
It’s the story of Stephen Glass, a star writer for The New Republic in the mid-90s, famous for weaving fantastic stories of excess and insider access. It all came crashing down when some reporters from Forbes Digital uncovered falsehoods in a story Glass had written about online hackers. TNR had already been getting complaints from the subjects of previous Glass pieces that they, too, were more fiction than fact. In the end, TNR discovered that at least 27 of 41 pieces Glass had authored for the magazine were partially or wholly fabricated, and he was fired.
Hayden Christensen plays Glass as a young guy willing to do anything to get ahead and impress his colleagues and editors. Chloe Sevigny is a fellow reporter who believes Glass can do no wrong, Hank Azaria plays TNR editor Michael Kelly, and Peter Saarsgard gives a very solid performance as the new editor who uncovers Glass’ deception. With just enough inside-journalism scenes to move the plot along, “Shattered Glass” tells the tale better than Glass did later in his (naturally) fictionalized account.
For more titles worth your time, see my entire Movies You Might Not Know list.