Dark Waters (2019)
Directed by Todd Haynes
A tenacious attorney uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything — his future, his family, and his own life — to expose the truth.
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3 films that influenced Dark Waters
What critics say influenced Dark Waters
Tapping into everything from “All the President’s Men” and “The Insider” (with a touch of “Spotlight” and “Erin Brockovich” for good measure), “Dark Waters” follows Bilot through the evolution of his interests in the case against DuPont, a company that his own firm represents.
The spirit of social activist dramas such as Norma Rae, Matewan, Silkwood and The Insider is alive and well in Dark Waters, a compelling account of a drawn-out legal case in which a tenacious whistleblowing lawyer spent years pursuing DuPont for secretly poisoning customers through the use of toxic chemicals and products, including Teflon.
Modern-day corporate thrillers as great as 1999’s The Insider and 2007’s Michael Clayton don’t come along too often.
"Dark Waters," starring Mark Ruffalo as an attorney trying to punish the DuPont chemical corporation for dumping toxic waste in West Virginia, is a lone-crusader-against-the-corrupt-system film, in the tradition of " The Insider ," " A Civil Action ," and " The Verdict ."
It was launched in the late ’60s and ’70s, with films like “Z” and “All the President’s Men” and “Norma Rae,” and it continued through the ’80s, with films like “Silkwood,” and the ’90s, with dramas like “The Insider.”
Instead of giving into the obvious rage of the situation, Haynes gives his story exactly two moments of righteous indignation – including one speech from Bilott’s boss, slickly played by Tim Robbins, that recalls the best and most ferocious moment of Michael Mann’s The Insider – but otherwise lets the facts, and Bilott’s tenaciousness in discovering them, speak for themselves.
Based on the brilliantly titled 2016 New York Times Magazine article The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare, Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven) has delivered a stunning and rage-inducing real-life environmental courtroom drama.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Dark Waters is that it’s directed by Todd Haynes, the director behind 2015’s Carol (one of the 10 best films of its year; go here ) and 2002’s Far from Heaven (one of the 10 best films of its decade; go here ).
Filmmaker Todd Haynes is not normally given to shock reveals, being more interested in character studies like “Carol” and “I’m Not There.”
Darkness has always lurked beneath the surface of polite society in Haynes' work, from Far from Heaven to Carol , here that darkness becomes quite literal.
Although the late fall is certainly known for being the place where hard-hitting dramas, ripe for awards consideration, often land, I don’t think I was quite prepared for just how much of a poignant gut punch of a film Dark Waters, the latest from Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Carol), truly is.
But now The Wife roles feel especially thankless (see also: Claire Foy in First Man and Caitriona Balfe in Ford v Ferrari), mainly because we are acutely aware that far fewer films like this exist for women, and when they do happen, they’re probably going to be as much about her love life as her professional accomplishment (ahem, Erin Brockovich).