A prolonged cry for help became a scream heard around the nation when, on July 15, 1974, reporter Christine Chubbuck shot herself during a live newscast on Sarasota’s WXLT-TV. More than 40 years later, Antonio Campos’ deeply compassionate film concerns itself with listening to those cries that were so ineffectively addressed at the time of Chubbuck’s shocking final act.

Christine begins in the early 1970s on Florida’s sleepy west coast. Christine (Golden Globe nominee Rebecca Hall) is an ambitious young woman dreaming of making her mark on the world as a serious reporter dealing with important national issues. She’s stuck, however, doing ultra-light community lifestyle pieces to keep herself employed and on the air. She’s frustrated by the sexism of small-town newsrooms, but also by her own inability to connect with her coworkers or understand how to play the game. Her unrelenting focus is on living only for work, finding any other type of activity bewildering and impenetrable—and her anger grows as her station increasingly turns to sensationalism as ratings-bait.

Christine wants what we all want: a sense of purpose, a community, romantic love, good health. We cannot help but empathize with her. But as Campos plumbs the depths of darkness to which this troubled woman plummets, the fundamental question of this sobering tragedy poignantly emerges: are we any better at recognizing warning signs of such harrowing despair today? – Jaie Laplante