When his powerful patron Leland Stanford commissioned Eadweard Muybridge to photograph a galloping stallion, the sequence of photographs changed history, foreshadowing the birth of cinema. “The machine cannot lie,” Stanford proclaimed of Muybridge’s camera. He was wrong, as the life and work of the ambitious and deceptive photographer would prove. There was so much more to Muybridge’s story, which unfolded – and unraveled – like a dime novel. Born in England, he became the most important 19th-century landscape photographer of the American West. He changed his name time and again, and stood trial for the cold-blooded murder of his wife’s lover. He was betrayed by Stanford, yet went on to produce his magnum opus of bodies (usually nude) in motion. Marc Shaffer’s fascinating documentary, featuring collector and eloquent fan Gary Oldman, raises questions about art and illusion that speak to our age of “fake news” and Photoshop, while paying tribute to a pioneer whose work has influenced artists from Francis Bacon to David Hockney.