‘Depp v. Heard’ docu-series review: A redundant attempt that leads us nowhere

A still from ‘Depp v. Heard’
| Photo Credit: @Netflix/YouTube

The defamation trial between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard took place in April 2022, six weeks of which were followed by an unprecedented social media storm. Over an year later, Netflix’s documentary Depp v. Heard promises in its first few minutes a more clarified version of the whole ordeal. They claim that they have achieved this by presenting Depp’s and Heard’s individual testimonies side by side. This sadly proves to be a tall promise for director Emma Cooper, for what is delivered to the audience is not a documentary, but a concise collation of clips.

Covering key moments from the six-week-long trial in Virginia, Depp v. Heard uses the actors’ individual testimonies to fashion a narrative of their relationship. As Heard describes meeting Depp for the first time, scenes from their film The Rum Diary play over her voice. A volatile relationship, an island wedding, and the subsequent divorce are all told to us from the alternating perspectives of Depp and Heard. Snipping down from hours-long footage of the tedious court procedure, Depp v. Heard then moves on to the specific incidents of abuse. Here, the documentary zooms in to show Heard’s or Depp’s reactions when the other one is taking the stand. So far, the documentary doesn’t provide a novel experience of dissecting a court case that will certainly have ramifications in the decades to follow.

A way that the documentary tries to differentiate itself, from just viewing other clips of the trial littered across YouTube and Twitter, is that it inserts the loud cacophony of social media commentators. The trolls, the experts, the casual viewers, the TikTok meme generators, the legal podcasters and the rabid fans – each species of the Depp v. Heard expert gets screentime. YouTube and TikTok videos act as foreground (introducing upcoming scenes) and background (providing rudimentary analysis). The footage from the court switches to, and sometimes blends seamlessly into, clips from social media.

Cooper appears to want to use this method to make a point, except no one else speaks in the documentary except the clips from social media, and the court footage. In an interview with Variety, Cooper said that she never intended to interview either Depp or Heard. Her focus was never the trial, she admits and says that she wanted to explore this moment in our culture as we consumed it. In her exact words, she wanted to, “make a cogent and interesting reflection of what happened without using interviews or experts.”

The purpose of any documentary, born usually out of a passion for the subject on the part of the documentarian, resides in its ability to open new avenues for conversation. It may explore unchartered territory, or take a fresh look at an oft-done topic. Cooper’s attempt with Depp vs. Heard remarkably manages to dodge anything that would have made it meaningful. Whatever her purpose may have been, the final outcome of the three-part series doesn’t differ much from the feeling felt originally while following the trial online. It glaringly lacks the view of an expert, be that an expert on legal proceedings, domestic violence, victims of abuse, or on dissemination and consumption of information. As the court trial progresses, the documentary occasionally offers up an analysis. A misstep on the part of Heard’s lawyers is analysed not by an expert but by a YouTube podcaster. In such a situation, the audience once again finds itself in a whirlpool of misinformation.

Playing out the footage that is already easily available in the public domain, Depp v. Heard attempts a weak approach at self-reflection. It betrays its own intentions and makes negligible efforts to elevate itself from the casual callousness with which the case was handled in the court of public opinion. Early on in the series, a masked Depp fan analysing the case on YouTube says, “I am not a legal scholar, I am not a lawyer. I do this for fun.” Similarly, the audience is forced to look for reasons behind making such documentaries, ones that indicate that maybe we need more time to self-reflect.

Depp v. Heard is available for streaming on Netflix