Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014)

The director, Nick Broomfield, suffers from “Michael Moore Disease,” the biggest symptom of which is that he thinks he’s interesting enough to be in front of the camera. He’s not.

This doc covers the case of Lonnie Davis, who is accused of being the “Grim Sleeper,” an LA serial killer who killed at least 10 women -- probably closer to 100 -- over a 25-year period. The movie lets us know that the cops seemed to have deliberately held back information that could have led to an arrest earlier. Other than that, there's not much revelation here as much of the movie consists of interviews with assorted "friends" of Lonnie who proclaim that there's no way Lonnie could have done it. Those same people go on to tell stories of watching Lonnie torture prostitutes or of that time Lonnie hired one of the friends to clean blood stains in his mobile home.

It’s a mess without structure, which I found to be especially annoying with a subject so tragic and naturally fascinating.

C