This is controversial, for sure. It's the story of five young men ( aged 16 to 21) who burglarized what they thought was an empty home.
It wasn't.
The homeowner took action, one of the five was killed, one shot (survived) and the rest were arrested. Due to a law in their state (and 45 others), if anyone is killed during the commission of a felony, all can be charged with murder. Even in this case, where the homeowner shot, the remaining four young men are charged with murder.
We get a lot of background. The focus of the movie, Blake, is the product of a teenager tryst. His mother was sixteen when she had Blake. She has another child, by an obviously different father and is married to (or living with) an ex-con. He ends up walking out on them. They seem likable enough, though, and are fighting for Blake's conviction to be overturned. They'd like him charged with burglary, not doing 50+ years in the penitentiary.
The mom, girlfriend, step-dad, Blake - calls what he did a mistake. That seems like an egregiously understated word for what they chose to do that night. However, all of these young men went in the house unarmed; wanting to steal everything of value from the place they could run off with. Which is still a fairly horrible thing to do, certainly a crime. Less time is what they're seeking.
It had moments where I thought I had to bail, I couldn't take it anymore. For example, on the year anniversary the neighborhood holds a candlelight vigil for the dead one. The one that terrified the man in the home so badly that he shot. The 21 year old, hardly a child. They said things like, "gone too soon", "now there's another angel in Heaven" but no mention of his crime. And, if I'm not mistaken, the vigil was held in front of the house they broke into that night. That takes nerve...
So, be prepared to feel sympathy and disgust, rage and outrage.
Should the young men be in prision for 55 years? Although the state they're in gives a day served, a day taken off credit - so they'll actually do half of their term.
It seems like people are strongly, extremely dug in on their version of this - overcharged or they got what they deserved.
It's interesting. You'll be on one side or the other, it's hard not to have an opinion here.