Review: Powerful ‘Phoenix Rising’ shows how Evan Rachel Wood found the strength to speak out

In HBO’s two-part documentary “Phoenix Rising,” Evan Rachel Wooden recounts the alleged abuse she endured throughout her relationship with shock rocker Marilyn Manson, starting with how they met when she was a teen in 2006 up by way of her painful choice to publicly title him as her alleged abuser in 2021.

The movie, which premieres Tuesday and continues Wednesday, makes the case that Wooden was “groomed” by the singer when she was simply 18 and he was 37, setting her up for a four-year relationship during which she claims he repeatedly drugged her and threatened her life whereas isolating her from family and friends.

Wooden claims within the movie that Manson’s sadistic, violent habits included raping her on digicam whereas capturing his 2007 video for “Coronary heart-Formed Glasses”: “I used to be coerced right into a business intercourse act below false pretenses,” she alleges. “That’s when the primary crime was dedicated towards me.” Manson (a.okay.a. Brian Warner) declined to touch upon particular allegations made within the movie however in a earlier assertion denied “any and all claims of sexual assault or abuse of anybody.” Earlier this month Manson sued Wooden for defamation over her sexual abuse allegations towards him, which he claims are a “malicious falsehood.”

Wooden was a toddler actor whose massive break got here at age 14 within the provocative movie “13,” an image that launched her profession but in addition set her up for “Lolita”-like roles in Hollywood. Manson rose to fame within the late Nineties and early 2000s with provocative music, a ghoulish look and twisted iconography: Hollywood glam meets Nazi symbolism meets satanic ritual. Wooden was relationship Jamie Bell and Manson was married to Dita Von Teese when the 2 met at a celebration on the Chateau Marmont.

Within the movie, director by Amy Berg (“The Case In opposition to Adnan Syed”) chronicles Wooden’s downward spiral in testimonials from Wooden and her household. As soon as in Manson’s world, he managed her, they allege: She was denied sleep, misplaced weight and was hooked on medicine. She branded an “M” on her internal thigh by way of scarification. However the movie doesn’t spend all its time on the poisonous affair.

“Phoenix Rising” additionally follows Wooden and pal Illma Gore as they scour outdated emails and laborious drives for proof to submit towards Manson. And there’s footage of Wooden campaigning to move the Phoenix Act, a invoice to permit victims of sexual assault an prolonged statute of limitations to file expenses. The act was handed and in October 2019 signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The movie is an genuine and courageous effort that works two-thirds of the time, when it’s not slowed down in pointless animated interludes likening Wooden to “Alice in Wonderland.” Segments devoted to points along with her household, and father specifically, really feel overworked. Temper-setting scenes round the home, along with her son on a swing set and so forth, are possible meant to seize the dear moments of normalcy in her journey to heal and search accountability, however they really feel extra like filler. The movie may additionally use extra voices to fill out the image relatively than relying so closely on Wooden’s household.

Probably the most highly effective half within the documentary arrives within the second half, when a gaggle that features Manson’s former girlfriends and a former male worker meet to help and validate each other’s experiences. It assuages the concern and pressure that’s been tormenting Wooden all through the movie as a result of right here she is believed, and he or she’s not alone. By the movie’s finish, Wooden’s emotional journey coalesces round one second: publicly naming Warner as her abuser on Feb. 1, 2021. Shaking, she pushes “ship” on the social media publish and weeps.