A Gray State

Unfolding like a more intricately plotted installment of "48 Hours," Erik Nelson's "A Gray State" is a genuinely unsettling examination of a 2015 murder case.

Even in its more meandering moments it is a gripping, almost unbearably dark watch.

This well-crafted doc makes for an absorbingly bizarre footnote. One suspects we are living in a historical epoch that is going to provide many such footnotes for some time to come.

A real-life tale that's as unsettling as it is precisely of-the-moment.

Clear enough about what happened to be ambiguous about what it means, the film makes only one clean argument: Truth isn't always stranger than fiction, but it's often a hell of a lot sadder.

Engrossing for the reasons it's also unsatisfying: As Adam Shambour, a friend of Mr. Crowley's, says, it's a mystery that answers all the major questions except "Why?"

... the problem with A Gray State remains with how Crowley fails to represent anything beside his own very private conflicts.

A Gray State is a multi-layered essay on how we tell stories, what we watch, and what we fail to see.

Erik Nelson's film straddles a fine and admirable line between lurid sensationalism and sober humanism.

A story similar to "The Shining" but much scarier because it is true.

This is a harrowing portrait how easily our own darkness can take us over, if we let it.

A tantalising and fascinating real-life story.