Lizzie is a 2018 American biographical thriller film directed by Craig William Macneill, written by Bryce Kass, and starring Chloë Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, Jay Huguley, Jamey Sheridan, Fiona Shaw, Kim Dickens, Denis O'Hare, and Jeff Perry.

It is based on the true story of Lizzie Borden, who was accused and acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892.

In 1892 Fall River, Massachusetts, 32-year-old Lizzie Borden resides with her domineering father, Andrew; stepmother, Abby, and elder sister, Emma.

On several occasions, the household is disrupted by trespassers and written threats, which Lizzie believes are connected to her father's recent acquisition of land.

Lizzie smashes a hand mirror in her bedroom and sprinkles the glass at Bridget's door, causing Andrew to cut his feet when leaving.

Afterwards, Lizzie butchers a pigeon with the murder weapon, smearing it with the bird's blood before sawing off the blade and hiding it in a pail in the basement.

Lizzie is ultimately acquitted of the murders and lives the remainder of her life in Fall River, ostracized by the community and estranged from Emma.

On October 28, 2015, it was announced that Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart had been cast in an as yet untitled film about Lizzie Borden, with Pieter Van Hees to direct from a script by Bryce Kass.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Lizzie forces audiences to take a new look at a widely known true-crime story -- even if the well-acted end result is never quite as gripping as it could be.

"[15] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post similarly wrote that Sevigny "is something of a closed book, delivering a stolid performance that can be read as either strong-willed or stonyhearted.

"[16] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times named the movie a Critic's Pick and praised the direction as "focused," and wrote that Ms. Sevigny's intelligence and formidable control keep the melodrama grounded.

Her empathy for Borden, whose fragile constitution belies a searing will, is palpable, as is the sense of inescapable peril surrounding the two female leads.

"[18] Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter summarized the film as "elegantly lurid but compelling," also praising Greenberg's cinematography and Sevigny's performance and commenting that Kass’ well-researched script concentrates less on how and more on why.

He commendably takes time to elucidate how much the family strife was based on power struggles over money, a factor as motivating as desire, disgust and a thirst for revenge.

At the same time, not everything is spelled out too literally, and both the screenplay and Macneill’s sensitive direction leave it to the lead actors to fill in the foreground colors.