{"id":1976125,"date":"2025-08-23T13:50:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1976125"},"modified":"2025-08-23T13:50:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:50:19","slug":"the-truth-about-jussie-smollett-on-netflix-a-curious-documentary-that-offers-new-evidence-for-a-high-profile-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-truth-about-jussie-smollett-on-netflix-a-curious-documentary-that-offers-new-evidence-for-a-high-profile-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Truth About Jussie Smollett?\u2019 on Netflix, a Curious Documentary That Offers \u2018New Evidence\u2019 for a High-profile Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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That\u2019s one hell of a load-bearing question mark: The Truth About Jussie Smollett? is Netflix\u2019s latest attempt to\u2026 well, what have they been trying to do with their spate of documentaries about sensational subjects like Connor Stallions, Rob Ford and Aaron Rodgers? Investigate things? Capitalize on controversy? Stir up the muck? Function as a promotional tool, inadvertently or otherwise? This new one is notable for featuring a rare sit-down with Smollett, the former Empire<\/a> actor and musician who\u2019s currently trying to jumpstart his career after it fell apart in 2019. Netflix sells the doc as featuring \u201cnew evidence\u201d about the high-profile incident that took Smollett down \u2013 now let\u2019s see if it\u2019s compelling or just a lot of hot air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gist:<\/strong> There\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re aware of the Smollett saga, but let\u2019s quickly recap: As one of the topline stars of Lee Daniels\u2019 hit Fox TV series Empire, the actor was recognizably famous. It was a bitterly cold night in 2019 when Smollett left his apartment in a tony neighborhood of Chicago. There weren\u2019t many people out, especially after midnight in the frigid weather. He walked to a nearby Subway for a sandwich. He says, on the way back, he was attacked by two White men in ski masks who shouted slurs \u2013 Smollett is Black and gay \u2013 and \u201cthis is MAGA country\u201d at him before beating him up and putting a noose around his neck. Smollett reported the incident to the Chicago police, who, after investigating the matter, claimed the TV star made the whole thing up in order to \u201cboost his career,\u201d going so far as to hire two men to \u201cattack\u201d him. Smollett stuck to his story throughout lengthy legal proceedings; he eventually was found guilty of filing a false police report and sentenced to fines and jail time. In 2024, the judgment was reversed on a technicality.<\/p>\n

Such is the baseline narrative functioning as the documentary\u2019s jumping-off point. Director Gagan Rehill rounds up most of the key figures in the story: Smollett sits down for an extensive interview \u2013 and honestly he and the film kind of make a show out of it, amping up the drama. Former Chicago Police Commissioner Eddie Johnson and Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples (she says this is \u201cthe first and last time\u201d she\u2019ll be interviewed about this) participate. The two brothers who Smollett allegedly hired, Ola Osundario and Bola Osundario, share their side of the story,. And of course, lawyers and journalists \u2013 ever the nuts-and-bolts talking heads of documentaries like this \u2013 provide context. Most notably, two more investigative journalists turn up in the final half-hour to share some reasonably compelling evidence that at least partly supports Smollett\u2019s story. Is this film retrying Smollett\u2019s case, in all its thorny, politically and racially charged context? Yeah, kind of.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/span><\/div>\n

Photo: Fox<\/p>\n

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?:<\/strong> One gets the sense that this might\u2019ve been an episode of Netflix\u2019s mostly silly, sensational Trainwreck series had it not been for the sensitive social politics of Smollett\u2019s saga.<\/p>\n

Performance Worth Watching:<\/strong> Chelli Stanley strikes me as the most credible journalist in the film.<\/p>\n

Memorable Dialogue:<\/strong> \u201cIt looks like a White man. No, wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sex and Skin:<\/strong> None.<\/p>\n

\"Fox<\/span><\/div>\n

Fox Nation<\/p>\n

Our Take:<\/strong> No surprise, The Truth About Jussie Smollett? doesn\u2019t provide any definitive answers, laying a bunch of stuff out there so we can decide for ourselves, I guess. Rehill\u2019s presentation of the circumstances of the case and new and old evidence is clear and concise, in direct contrast to the clear-as-mud motives for both sides: Why would Smollett stage the attack in the first place? And if he didn\u2019t, why would Chicago police work so hard to smear the guy? We see one of Commissioner Johnson\u2019s showy press conferences where he claimed Smollett was unhappy with his career, which struck me as irresponsible conjecture that flies in the face of the fact that the guy was on a hit TV show making $100,000 per episode. Meanwhile, the independent journalists trot out claims that Chicago P.D. suppressed and altered surveillance footage and eyewitness testimonies, and point to the organization\u2019s long history of corruption and a need for a \u201cwin\u201d as to why they\u2019d antagonize Smollett.<\/p>\n

Most fascinating is one of the videos the journalist\u2019s FOIA request turned up, which addresses the curious notion that Smollett claimed his attackers were White, while the Osundarios are very clearly Black. Rehill shows it to Smollett\u2019s supporters, his detractors and objective observers, and the moment \u2013 the doc\u2019s juiciest by far \u2013 functions as a remedial lesson in confirmation bias. Nothing is clear; everything is mud; perception is reality; everything is politics.<\/p>\n

As for the tenor of the talking heads? Does it say a lot that Smollett\u2019s lawyer \u2013 whose firm has represented Michael Jackson, Andrew Tate, Mike Tyson and Chris Brown \u2013 comes off the most sincere? Yes. It\u2019s also confusing for those of us trying to suss out the truth. The Osundarios are the least convincing, their presence weird and awkward, like lousy actors latching onto opportunities for self-promotion, and their lawyer doesn\u2019t seem to take anything seriously. Johnson and Staples come off surly and dismissive, doubling down on their certainty. And Smollett is oddly overdramatic at times, as if well-practiced in the art of sincerity; I can see some interpreting that as performance, and others seeing it as anger funneled through a calm, collected demeanor. Is Smollett piggybacking on \u201cnew evidence\u201d in an attempt to claw back some of his career success? Who knows. It\u2019s a legit question. The optics aren\u2019t great, but neither are they free from obfuscation.<\/p>\n

Our Call:<\/strong> Nobody should realistically expect The Truth About Jussie Smollett? to be the next The Thin Blue Line<\/a>, which famously exonerated an unjustly imprisoned man. With that in mind, the doc is highly watchable and fascinating, toning down some of the sensationalism and functioning at least as an assertion that truth is doggedly, frustratingly elusive. STREAM IT.<\/p>\n

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s one hell of a load-bearing question mark: The Truth About Jussie Smollett? is Netflix\u2019s latest attempt to\u2026 well, what have they been trying to do with their spate of documentaries about sensational subjects like Connor Stallions, Rob Ford and Aaron Rodgers? Investigate things? Capitalize on controversy? Stir up the muck? Function as a promotional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1976126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[308694,353041,353043,353044,343837,353042,353045],"class_list":["post-1976125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-police","tag-commissioner-johnson","tag-eddie-johnson","tag-jussie-smollett","tag-melissa-staples","tag-smollett"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u2018The-Truth-About-Jussie-Smollett-on-Netflix-a-Curious-Documentary.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1976126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}