“Depp v. Heard” takes us back to the spring of 2022, when the world just couldn’t get enough of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial.

In three 45-minute episodes, this Netflix docuseries attempts to cover both the trial and the social media circus that built up around it. It also shows conflicting testimonies side-by-side, so that the viewers can make their own judgments.

As a work of entertainment, “Depp v. Heard” can’t miss, not with this subject matter, and director Emma Cooper does her best to be responsible in her choice of trial footage. But the filmmaker’s bias toward Heard leads her to mischaracterize the social media reaction as nothing but a misogynist feeding frenzy.

库珀使用最主要的akish, unqualified, ignorant and woman-hating YouTubers and gives them ample screen time as a way to characterize mainstream social media opinion. But she devotes no more than four or five seconds to Legal Bytes, a responsible site with real lawyers talking about the trial as it unfolded.

Cooper brings on experts who make assumptions about the people who believed Depp, saying that it was confirmation bias, that these were Depp fans who were going to believe anything he said. Perhaps that was the case with some people, just as others may have gone into the trial wanting to believe Heard. But confirmation bias doesn’t account for the fact that Depp was simply a better witness.

My own example might not be typical, but I approached the trial as someone who has disliked Depp in most of his best-known roles — not just in “The Pirates of the Caribbean” films but in other movies everyone seems to like, such as “Edward Scissorhands.” Though I’ve appreciated him in other films (“Donnie Brasco,” “Dillinger”), he’s probably my least favorite major American actor.

Meanwhile, I’ve enjoyed Heard to the extent that I’ve noticed her (as in “Her Smell”). If I had any bias going in, it was toward Heard. But watching the trial,I found him hard to read, while she just seemed phony. And when she was caught grandstanding that she had given $7 million to charity, when she had only “pledged” it, she lost the benefit of the doubt.

Cooper touches on the “pledge” issue, but more as a miscalculation than a revelation. Likewise, Cooper takes a similar approach to the moment when Heard, on the witness stand, mentioned a rumor that Depp had once knocked his then-girlfriend Kate Moss down the stairs. This allowed Depp’s lawyers to bring in Moss to deny the rumor and speak well of Depp’s character.

Did he really knock Moss down the stairs? Was Moss lying? We can’t know. But at a certain point, enough evidence starts piling up that it becomes easier to believe one side over the other.

都是一样的,”戴普诉听到“带来encapsulates a fascinating story. By the end, the documentary’s Heard bias becomes useful in reminding us that, by the time the jury decided the case in Depp’s favor, the public’s hostility toward Heard had devolved into the pathological. Whether you believe she was the real victim in the marriage, she certainly became a victim of TikTok and an onslaught of ridiculous memes worldwide.

The documentary also updates the story. The trial ended in June 2022, with Depp getting awarded $15 million in damages and Heard getting awarded $2 million. Heard planned to appeal the verdict but in December, the former couple decided to settle out of court, with Heard paying Depp $1 million.

Reach Mick LaSalle: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com