Earlier this year HBO treated us to docu-series The Jinx that left us in total awe. For a large part of his career, the topic of Robert Durst (a millionaire-heir who has been accused of three murders) has been a passion project for filmmaker Andrew Jarecki (Capturing the Friedmans); hes been working on the subject of Dursts life story for a number of years, which led the director to make a whimsy and fictionalised telling called All Good Things starring Ryan Gosling. Given its utterly flabbergasting series finale, which left people of the Internet freaking out, The Jinx is documentary filmmaking at its purest, and for any fan of non-fiction storytelling, this mini-series is a must-see. It has an urban myth feel to its narrative and bursts with revelation after revelation. Its a game of cat and mouse between subject and filmmaker with fascinating exposes from those people who had the misfortune of rubbing shoulders with Durst. So, dive head first into the strange history of this real estate heir with these six reasons as to why The Jinx is f*cking incredible...
6. The Defendant Is Utterly Engrossing
Let me start this off with a simple question: Have you ever heard of Robert Durst? For most, the answer to that question will be a straightforward no. Strangely, Dursts crimes are fairly recent. In the last decade alone hes had half a dozen books written about him, in addition to that feature-length movie, which led Durst to reach out to Jarecki and flesh out plans to get this documentary off-the-ground - which I'm guessing was music to the acclaimed directors ears.
The backstory of who Robert Durst is, is laid out in the first twenty-minutes of the opening episode. It hooks you in from the get-go. Durst is the black sheep weirdo of his family, who tried to erase his existence. The empire he was supposed to inherit was instead given to his brother, which likely started his demise. However, this narrative ploy of laying out his roots in a resolute way is a masterful slight of hand from Jarecki, who pulls at the heartstrings and leads into a false sense of sympathy. It all sounds so tragic, meaning that its hard not to feel sorry for him.