Brian Banks was a young man with a bright future. A skilled football player, he was in great demand by pro teams…until a high school classmate accused him of rape. After serving his time (5 years), Banks was contacted by his accuser, who wanted to resume their friendship (the friendship that was interrupted by her rape accusation). He, and his legal team, recorded her admitting that she’d made up the entire rape story. Banks was fully exonerated.
In 2017, Hollywood came a-callin’. The film went into limited released a week ago. A movie about a decent man whose life and career prospects were ruined by a high school classmate who made an uncorroborated rape charge was released a week ago. A movie about a real-life incident in which a woman outright lied about a high school rape to try to prevent a man who had done her no harm from landing his dream job was released during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings…as a woman was trying to prevent a decent man from landing his dream job by lodging an uncorroborated high school rape charge.
The critical reaction to the Banks film has been hilarious. Forced to review the movie after it won the audience award for best feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Variety’s Peter Debruge devoted his entire column to trying to explain how a movie that is relevant to current events is totally not relevant to current events.
https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/brian-banks-review-1202962271/