I review a lot of biopics and documentaries screened at The Grand Cinema. Because these types of films recount stories about real people and events, it's no surprise that - just like in real life - they don't consist entirely of feel-good escapism. Kon-Tiki told the story of Thor Heyerdahl's 4,300 mile ocean voyage on a balsa wood raft - at the expense of his marriage. Blue Caprice showcased the murderous exploits of two homicidal madmen and only briefly touched on their capture - providing only the vaguest reminder that good "always" triumphs over evil. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom showed Nelson Mandela's rise from a prisoner to a beloved political leader and a force for social change - it also didn't shy away from showing his philandering and other dishonorable qualities. Since real life is a mix of both the positive and the negative, we shouldn't be put off when a biopic or documentary comes along that doesn't sanitize the source material in order to instill us with warm, fuzzy feelings - or if it's a little more "Ripped from the Headlines" than we'd like it to be.

Charlie Victor Romeo is writer-director Robert Berger's cinematic debut. The film, adapted from Berger's 1999 award-winning play of the same name, takes its title from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet shorthand for "cockpit voice recorder." That's one of the more formal names for the "black box" recovered from plane crashes that records pilots' headset dialogue and often provides the most telling clues when investigators try to determine what went wrong.

Using nearly-verbatim transcripts recovered from black boxes between 1985 and 1996, Charlie Victor Romeo re-creates six aviation incidents and accidents from around the world, running the gamut from relatively minor ones that had no casualties to the truly catastrophic ones that claimed the lives of everyone aboard. One accident featured in the film still holds the record for the deadliest single aircraft crash in history.

The audience blessedly sees none of that mayhem.

Charlie Victor Romeo doesn't rely on gratuitous explosions, mangled bodies or even a family-friendly "Miracle on the Hudson" to tell its stories, so moviegoers hoping for an ultra-sensationalist Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich or Paul Verhoeven-inspired film will be sorely disappointed. Instead, Berger handles his somber source material with the utmost decorum and respect. In fact, the camera never leaves the planes' cockpits.

Berger tells the tales of these aerial misfortunes through the eyes of both the pilots and the air traffic controllers - one of whom is played by Berger himself - that lived them. Watching actors re-create what was usually, but not always, an unfortunate flight crew's last moments alive makes for a visceral, nailbiting and absolutely gut-punching moviegoing experience. But in doing so, Berger honors the deceased by giving faces back to people who had been reduced to nothing but bits of audio in a charred black box.

NOTE: Writer-director Bob Berger will be in attendance for the Saturday 4:15 p.m. and Sunday 2 p.m. screenings at The Grand Cinema. Audience Q&A sessions will follow after each screening.

CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO, 4:15 p.m. March 22, 2 p.m. March 23 and 27, 6:30 p.m. March 25,  The Grand Cinema, 606 S. Fawcett, Tacoma, $4.50-$9, 253.593.4474