Article: Fact pack picks pix apart: how well have filmmakers balanced reality with the demands of telling a really good story?(NONFICTION: BIOPICS, HISTORY & TRUE CRIME)

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By ROBERT HOFLER

Critics have weighed in on most of this year's movies. When it comes to those films based on a true story, however, they are not always the ultimate judge. Regarding this year's batch of reality-based fare, Variety went to the real experts to get their opinion.

Ex-cop Joseph Wambaugh liked what he saw in this year's "Zodiac," even if its makers couldn't corroborate every last detail as he did in his 1979 true-crime thriller, "The Onion Field."

"'Zodiac' takes a strong position that the journalist (Jake Gyllenhaal) pretty much had figured who did it. Of course, that guy is dead. If he were alive, ...

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