An Overlooked 2018 True Crime Drama Is Sitting High On Netflix's Top Charts

Netflix has been serving up even more questionable streaming fare than usual of late. Dylan Sprouse's "Die Hard on a bridge" movie, "Aftermath," broke Netflix's film charts recently despite being what one viewer described as "visual cancer." It followed Amy Schumer's similar domination of the Netflix charts with her movie "Kinda Pregnant," a film that garnered a 28% Rotten Tomatoes score. That all transpired in the wake of Cameron Diaz's absolute domination of Netflix with her first movie in 11 years, "Back in Action," itself a 29-percenter on RT. As such, the arrival of a half-decent true crime drama on the streamer's movie charts is a welcome development.

"Trial by Fire" is a biographical drama directed by Edward Zwick, the filmmaker responsible for one of the best Civil War movies ever made in "Glory." This overlooked 2018 effort is based upon the article of the same name by journalist David Grann, which appeared in The New Yorker in 2009. It covered the story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who in 2004 was executed for the 1991 murder of his three children by arson, having been convicted in the case of Willingham v. State of Texas. What made Willingham's case so controversial was that both Grann's and an earlier Chicago Tribune article argued the evidence used to convict had been misinterpreted. What's more, an expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission made similar claims about the evidence, arguing that it didn't point to arson as the most likely cause of the fire that killed Willingham's children.

The film stars Jack O'Connell as the ostensibly wrongly-convicted, and Laura Dern as playwright Elizabeth Gilbert who became an advocate for Willingham's innocence after reading a letter he wrote to his lawyer. In an effort to exonerate the man she believes has been wrongly convicted, Gilbert pursues the truth about the case, discovering a web of deceitfulness and suppressed evidence along the way.

If you think that sounds a little too interesting to succeed on the same charts that recently hosted Sprouse and Schumer, you'd be wrong because "Trial by Fire" is making a run up those very rankings.

Released on May 17, 2019, "Trial by Fire" didn't make much of an impression when it first debuted. But that's exactly what Netflix is for. The platform that gave life to a forgotten Chris Hemsworth flop and resurrected an overlooked Adam Driver and Bill Murray zombie movie is exactly the kind of place a movie like "Trial by Fire" can thrive. Sure, it doesn't have a shambolic Rotten Tomatoes score, but it turns out that's not actually a requirement to succeed in the streaming charts.

According to FlixPatrol, a site that tracks streaming viewership figures across the various platforms, "Trial by Fire" has enjoyed solid success since it hit Netflix on February 13, 2025. The following day, it immediately charted at number four on the U.S. film charts, which is a pretty good result for a movie nobody actually remembers. If anything, it's nice to see a film that is clearly better than your average direct-to-streaming effort actually getting an audience. What's more, on February 15 "Trial by Fire" jumped up a spot to take number three in the U.S., putting it in contention for first place. In order to take that top spot, however, Jack O'Connell and Laura Dern are going to have contend with Dylan Sprouse, who has dug in at number two and is fighting off any and all contender who dares challenge his Netflix chart triumph — and that's not the only competition "Trial by Fire" faces.

At the time of writing, the U.S, Netflix movie charts are being dominated by the streamer's own romantic comedy "La Dolce Villa" which debuted on the service the same day as "Trial by Fire." Now, "La Dolce Villa" is much closer to the kind of thing you'd expect to see in the top spot, with no Rotten Tomatoes score to speak of and a middling audience score of just 58%. Sure, it's not quite as bad as the time Kevin Hart's "Lift" hit number one on Netflix, but it's doing its best to keep alive the grand tradition of films that aren't very good dominating the streamer's rankings.

With a solid 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, "Trial by Fire" has no business creeping towards that number one spot, though its score does drop to 45% when taking into account only "top critics" and its average rating is just 5.4 out of 10. Regardless, it seems the biographical drama may well be in with a chance of claiming victory as Dylan Sprouse's actioner has been hanging around for a little while now, and is surely prime for a topplin'.

Meanwhile, a sneaky 43-percenter is creeping up behind "Trial by Fire" to snatch that number three spot, with sci-fi horror "Don't Let Go" looking like it too might enjoy a nice little run at the top — especially with that kind of critical response. At least Dern and co. won't have to worry about John J. Rambo. After finally finding an audience on Netflix, Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" flop, "Last Blood" looks to be dropping out of the top 10, though it's still holding on to the number seven spot at the time of writing. It will be interesting to see if "Trial by Fire" can take number one as the week goes on, but with some half-decent reviews behind it, such a feat would surely upset the streaming overlords at Netflix.