Does my name belong to me?

Amanda Knox, a movie I probably won't get to see, and 7 other things worth your time.

When I started this newsletter, I had to make a little choice with big ramifications. I had to decide whether to call the whole thing something like, “Bill Murphy Jr.’s Newsletter,” or come up with another name.

I went with the latter idea. I guess you know this, since you’re reading it.

It was the right decision, but it was also an existential one—whether the name my parents gave me should simply refer to me, or be associated with something else, too.

With that, I want to talk about the new movie Stillwater, and three associated names.

1. First, Matt Damon. Big-time actor-slash-movie star.

2. Second, Tom McCarthy. Oscar winner and creator of the movie Spotlight, which took the Academy Award for Best Picture.

3. Finally, Amanda Knox.

Stillwater is about an American student jailed in France for the murder of her roommate—and her fish-out-of-water father, from Oklahoma, who moves to Marseille to try to clear her name.

The story sounds familiar because it’s supposed to.

It’s “ripped from the headlines”…