True crime documentary films have the power to set the record straight, to observe facts and events with a clear eye. Films like Paradise Lost and The Thin Blue Line set men free from life or death sentences for crimes they did not commit. During last night’s mini-series finale of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, something else happened. Andrew Jarecki’s entertaining pulp profile of the millionaire real estate family and the suspicion surrounding three murders ended with the filmmakers uncovering the smoking gun. Durst had been determined not guilty in a previous case and was a prime suspect in two others, but without proof that could fully link him. If you didn’t watch The Jinx finale (or any of it), it is a prime example of the power of film and its real-world effect. You can also see the wonderful New York Times rendering of events, news that broke shortly before we saw it all play out on HBO. And here are other news items from the week that you may have missed:

RIP Richard Glatzer, Co-director of Still Alice

Remembering a film artist that has passed on wasn’t intended to be a staple in this weekly feature, but that is unfortunately how things have played out recently. Richard Glatzer, who battled ALS while continuing his career as a writer and film director, is a true hero. His last film, Still Alice, is a beautiful portrayal of how disease can affect an entire family, but also a stirring tribute to those who don’t let their ailments deter them from life. The film will always be a touching tribute to Glatzer’s career. For a tribute on the man, please read the Hollywood Report.

It Follows Big Hit in Limited Release

While only grossing an estimated $163,000 in its opening weekend, the indie horror flick had the top per screen average of the weekend at $40,750. This puts It Follows as the second highest per screen opening average of the year, behind A Most Violent Year, and 9th overall in the past 12 months. The film has garnered rave reviews on the festival circuit, and we called its inventive monster one the scariest ever. It Follows will be spreading to more theaters in the coming weeks before it infects Video On-Demand on March 27.

Kevin Smith Announces Clerks III, Possible Other Films

A few years back, while we were all hotly anticipated Red State, Kevin Smith announced that he was going to retire from filmmaking to focus on podcasting and film distribution. Well, the prolific indie filmmaker has apparently had a change of heart. From The Dissolve, Smith has announced that he’ll be revisiting the series that put him on the map, as Clerks III will begin shooting in May. Currently, Smith has a few other projects in the works, including Yoga Hosers (a sorta spiritual sequel to Tusk), and potentially a sequel to his early film Mallrats.

Martin Scorsese (Maybe) Directing Mike Tyson Biopic

In other director attaching news, Jamie Foxx teased that the legendary director will be helming his long anticipated Mike Tyson biopic during an interview on Uproxx. Scorsese, of course, made the greatest profile of a boxer of all time, so this would be an interesting return to the ring. Raging Bull defined how combat sports are put on film and Scorsese could be the perfect fit for the dynamic and ferocious personality of Mike Tyson. At this point, there is no confirmation, but we can dream a little, can’t we?

SXSW Opens Its 2015 Fest

Austin’s SXSW film festival has grown into one of the biggest destinations for indie and genre films, with films like Tiny Furniture, Bridesmaids, The Cabin in the Woods and Chef making their world premieres in recent years. Couldn’t make it to Austin this year? Well, we have you covered with reviews from the festival all week. You can check out the full lineup here.

Trailer of the Week: Iris

Last week I mentioned the late filmmaker Albert Maysles’s upcoming film Iris, and now the first trailer for the doc has dropped. The portrait of legendary fashion icon Iris Apfel looks to fit alongside a number of recent fantastic documentary profiles of aging artists such as Bill Cunningham New York, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me and Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Check out the trailer below!

Like a soaring guitar solo in a mediocre song, Julianne Moore will blow you away in Still Alice, while the rest of the rickety disease movie can barely hold itself together. The movie isn’t a disaster, though; you can’t really divorce Moore’s performance from the rest of the film because the performance intrinsically belongs to the film. But is Moore alone enough to make Still Alice worth watching? The short answer is no, but she does get some help from a young, underrated actress whose effort is just as commendable, but will likely go unnoticed by most. More on that later…

Movies about pressing, important topics like, in this case, Alzheimer’s disease, are fueled by good intentions, though it almost goes without saying that golden statues are always part of the long-term plan as well. Moore’s turn as Alice Howland, a heralded linguistics professor at Colombia who develops a rare case of early-onset Alzheimer’s, is a role every actress in Hollywood would die to play, though few could pull it off as well as Moore does here. But man, is this a dumpy movie. Expect Moore to be showered with praise come Oscar time, and count on Still Alice disappearing into the ether shortly thereafter.

It’s a tragedy of cataclysmic proportions for a woman to have her brain, the very thing she built her long legacy with, deteriorate and slip away at such a young age (50). Moore’s Alice notices small glitches at first: on a routine run around town she suffers a panic attack when, while standing in the middle of the very campus she teaches at, she realizes she has no idea where she is; while giving a lecture she’s given many times before, she loses her place and can’t remember what words come next. She’s got everything to be proud of: a loving family, lots of money, the respect of her colleagues. She’s brilliant, well-liked, and beautiful. But what of that matters when her mind is slipping away by the minute? The irony is just a hair short of ridiculous (writer-director duo Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer’s style is perpetually melodramatic), though the realities of the disease highlighted are sobering to say the least.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, Alice discovers that her condition is hereditary, and there’s a good chance her three children–played by Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, and Hunter Parrish–have inherited the disease themselves. The film focuses on Alice’s relationship with Stewart’s character, Lydia, who’s the least successful of the three kids, as far as Alice is concerned. Lydia wants to be a stage actress, a career choice her mother finds less than ideal, because actresses don’t make a lot of money. (There’s a joke in there somewhere, but it’s not funny.)

Of the three children, Lydia is the one who devotes the most time to caring for her deteriorating mother, despite their contentious relationship. After years of not living up to her mother’s expectations, the tables turn and, as Alice’s need for assistance increases, Lydia’s there to be her rock. Stewart is the young actress I mentioned earlier, and she’s a wonderful screen partner for Moore, much like she is for Juliette Binoche in the upcoming Clouds of Sils Maria. With her signature “bad girl” air and perpetually unimpressed expression, you expect Stewart to be that rebellious child who unleashes years of frustration when Alice’s disappointment becomes too overbearing, but she never becomes that. She remains restrained and wise, and becomes every bit the woman her mother is. When the two meet backstage at one of Lydia’s plays and Alice mistakes her own daughter for a stranger, tears well up in Lydia’s eyes. Instead of breaking down, Stewart conveys the heartbreak in as few moves as possible, never going big. It’s the sign of a great actress.

What makes critiquing this movie so complicated is the disparity between Moore’s performance and her directors’. This movie should be nothing more than a step-by-step, formulaic bore, and in many ways it is, but it’s almost impossible not to be compelled by what Moore does on-screen. She’s a master. Her role is unique in that, while other Oscar-bait-y roles start quiet and build up to a series of loud, bravura scenes at the film’s climax, here Alice’s emotional arc goes up, and then slopes steeply downward: upon being diagnosed her anxiety goes through the roof, but as her mental faculties and memories fade, she becomes more and more emotionally blank.

The key to Moore’s performance lies in her eyes. At the film’s outset, Alice’s eyes look full of big ideas and wit and ambition, but as her mind slips away, her eyes become more confused and vacant. It’s devastating to watch, and the representation of mental decay is beautifully depicted by Moore. The desperation and sorrow is overwhelming as Alice can’t find the bathroom in her own beach house, or introduces herself to her son’s girlfriend twice, or has a breakdown when she can’t find her cell phone. You’re definitely going to cry. There’d be nothing unjust about handing Moore any amount of award statues.

Alice’s biologist husband (a decent Alec Baldwin) is at first in denial about the affliction, but as time marches on and Alice’s condition worsens, his focus shifts to his job. He’s not a louse, or a coward, just a self-absorbed man who isn’t willing to dedicate his life to his ailing wife. Bosworth and Parrish remain mostly in the background, and their characters seem to be there only to provide a stark contrast to Lydia.

Just as it’s hard not to be moved by Moore, it’s hard not to notice how schematic the script is. We’re shoved from moment to moment, each designed specifically to illustrate just how depressing Alice’s condition is without providing much else, dramatically. Despite the title’s message of existential perseverance, Still Alice offers no revelatory perspective on Alice’s condition. Everything that defines her as an individual gets stripped away, and it leaves you feeling empty and sad. Is there anything left of her? That’s a question I wish the filmmakers gave more thought.