# data[].attributes.headline
The Blurry Lines Between Fact and Fiction

# data[].attributes.subject
The Blurry Lines Between Fact and Fiction

# data[].attributes.body
https://letterboxd.com/lilyto/list/real-to-reel-life/

As an avid user of the movie logging platform, Letterboxd, I decided to compile a non-exhaustive list of films that would demonstrate the concept of turning “real life” into “reel life”. I say “non-exhaustive” because the film industry is constantly evolving, and each year brings a new round of movies that are based on true stories.

Movies are, at their core, a public presentation of self. Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, director of the Oscar-nominated movies Birdman and The Revenant, says that “cinema is a mirror by which we often see ourselves.” A great deal of movies tell the stories of humans and their lives that are dramatized or tweaked to fit the narrative that the director wants to show the world. We watch movies and can empathize with the snippets of emotion and slice of life that they show us.

All of the movies on my Letterboxd list have been put on there because they meet one requirement: they all portray real people or document events that have really happened. That being said, not all of them are accurate; characters have been added or storylines changed in order to create a compelling plot. Cinema is seen as a way for people to escape reality for a couple of hours because while these movies deal with real life, people don’t go to the theater to relive mundane events.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Social Network (2010) dir. David Fincher

# data[].attributes.subject
The Social Network (2010) dir. David Fincher

# data[].attributes.body
YOU DON’T GET TO 500 MILLION FRIENDS WITHOUT MAKING A FEW ENEMIES.

Summary: On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room as a small site among friends soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history… but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications.

The Social Network tells the story of how Facebook came to be from the minds of two Harvard students, one who went on to become famous while the other faded into obscurity. Jesse Eisenberg plays an arrogant but brilliant Mark Zuckerberg, while Andrew Garfield plays Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's roommate who was removed as Facebook's co-founder. While telling a true story, the screenwriters took some liberties with the so-called inception of the social networking website. In the film, Zuckerberg goes on a drunken rampage after being dumped by his girlfriend and in the heat of the moment, comes up with the idea of a website designed to rate people on their attractiveness given their profile picture, which later is developed into Facebook. Zuckerberg, himself, says that while the film is based on him, "this is [his] life, so [he] know it’s not so dramatic.” Creative liberties and additional characters were written into the script in order to present a narrative driven by betrayal, jealousy, and greed for power.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Bling Ring (2013) dir. Sofia Coppola

# data[].attributes.subject
The Bling Ring (2013) dir. Sofia Coppola

# data[].attributes.body
LIVING THE DREAM, ONE HEIST AT A TIME.

Summary: Inspired by actual events, a group of fame-obsessed teenagers use the Internet to track celebrities’ whereabouts in order to rob their homes.

The Bling Ring is a satirical film based around the 2009 robberies done by a gang of rich upperclass teenagers, more commonly known as The Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch. They targeted famous celebrity homes such as but not limited to: Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Miranda Kerr, Megan Fox, and Lindsay Lohan. In real life, these teens were from Calabasas, which is well-known these days for being the home base of stars such as the Kardashians. Rewind 10 years, it was less about the Kardashians and more about the Paris Hiltons and Nicole Richies. The film is less of a biography or documentary. The producers took the idea from a Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales, "The Suspects Wore Louboutins," and loosely based the plot off of it, but making sure to change the character's names. Emma Watson takes the lead as Nicki Moore, who is a revamped character of Alexis Neiers, one of the burglary ringleaders. When asked about her real life counterpart, Watson responded that "to be fair to Alexis, [my character] is like three steps removed from who she might be in real life. A lot of the material in the movie was based on an article, which was based on a reality show, which we all know isn't real life. I wasn't trying to impersonate her—she just inspired the character."

# data[].attributes.headline
Catch Me If You Can (2002) dir. Steven Spielberg

# data[].attributes.subject
Catch Me If You Can (2002) dir. Steven Spielberg

# data[].attributes.body
THE TRUE STORY OF A REAL FAKE.

Summary: A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not only eludes capture, he revels in the pursuit.

Catch Me If You Can is a Spielberg biographical crime film detailing how Frank Abagnale Jr. managed to pull off check fraud and steal millions of dollars. Leonardo Dicaprio and Tom Hanks are pitted against each other in a game of cat and mouse. Dicaprio's Abagnale gives fictional FBI agent Carl Hanratty an extremely hard time throughout the movie. Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks, is actually a fusion of various real life agents involved in the case. He chases Abagnale across the globe in his efforts to arrest him. The real life Frank Abagnale actually makes a cameo in the movie to, ironically, arrest Dicaprio's character. Abagnale sold DreamWorks the film rights to his autobiography. Catch Me If You Can is one of those rare films that is startlingly accurate, with only minor details being changed, with Abagnale himself saying that the movie really captured his story. Leonardo Dicaprio said that the "things that happen in real life are sometimes a hundred times more fascinating than anything a person could make up off the top of his head."