![]() ![]() ![]() says early on, because that meant that he’d get to spend time with his dad. later claims that this isn’t “a father and son” story, and that it’s more about life, death and what happens in between: “We’re here, we do stuff and then we’re gone.” But his claim about the former is only half right it’s not just about one father-and-son story. might not want to answer, and that they both know that time is running out. keeps wanting to ask his dad questions that Sr. feels narcissistic or performative - it’s the opposite of that infamously cringeworthy Truth or Dare sequence - is a testament to Smith, his editors and his subjects. Name another billion-dollar movie star who would let someone film a virtual therapy session (!) while is dad is literally dying in the next room. and his son go back east to see Sr., at which part a serious leap of faith completely turns into an incredible example of trust. has long earned the right to stop addressing his lost-weekend years, which has now become a career footnote, yet he opens up about it for Smith’s cameras. We here about the effect that a bohemian lifestyle has on kids and what happens when one artist’s demons mirror another’s. The conversations begin to have a push-pull dynamic, along with an incredible sense of candor and honesty. So father and son start talking over Zoom and phone calls, with Smith and Ford filming each side. The latter’s Parkinson’s disease is also beginning to get the best of the octogenarian. Halfway through filming, Covid hits and leaves Jr. declares it was “complicated, in that most of his attention was on the process of chasing the muse.”ĭC Comics' 'Sweet Tooth' Receives Netflix Adaptation: Watch the TrailerĪnd then a funny thing happens on the way to Sr.’s portrait of an artist: It ends up becoming about not one but two men, dual reluctance be damned. cast his then-five-year-old son Robert in a 1970 film called Pound, an allegory featuring actors playing dogs, and gave the boy his first onscreen line: “Got any hair on your balls?” Asked about his dad as a parent, the grown-up Jr. Family remains a through line, if not exactly a center of stability. Eventually, a chronological narrative starts to form, as we see early successes lead to other opportunities, a West Coast relocation, drugs, more drugs, a second marriage, and rehabilitation. cinema legend is his own way of coming full circle. Smith started his documentary career with the story of an independent filmmaker making his lo-fi, now-budget dream come true in 1999’s American Movie, and this look at a true D.I.Y. ![]() We also get the requisite clips of Sr.’s movies, and a sense of the era in which avant-garde, grainy 16mm movies about a guy marrying his mom (big up Chafed Elbows!) could inspire a small experimental theater’s ticket line to worm its way around the block. See Lana Del Rey This Fall - If You're Lucky Enough to Live In One of These 10 Cities Literally, in the case of the poster for his breakthrough movie, the 1969 up-against-the-wall-Madison-Ave. had made a name for himself as a ’60s New York underground filmmaker with a knack for pushing envelopes, offending timid sensibilities and giving the establishment the finger. had his own career in show business, Downey Sr. And for those of us who already worship of the altar of the elder Downey, this Netflix doc - it drops on the streaming service this weekend - is a chance to see a true indie-movie O.G. is happy to fill in some blanks from here to paternity. as the father of the guy from the Marvel movies, Sr. See what happens.įor those who only think of Robert Downey Sr. Come up to our place in the Hamptons, the younger Robert said. But he did mention a counter-offer: What about my dad? You should film that guy. He wasn’t interested in someone doing a film about him. When he approached the star, however, Downey demurred. The American Movie filmmaker thought that the former man in the iron suit would make a fascinating subject for a doc. ![]() When Chris Smith - a documentarian who had tackled everything from Method acting run amuck to a music festival falling apart - was asked what subjects he might be interested in pursuing in terms of a new project, he didn’t mention a “what.” Instead, he gave his producers a “who”: Robert Downey Jr. ![]()
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