✔️ 2022-12-03 13:59:35 – Paris/France.
In this documentary, actor Robert Downey Jr. jokes, pays tribute and looks back on the life and work of his father, director of classic underground cinema from the 60s and 70s. Netflix premiere.
A tribute and a farewell to his father, in the terms and even with the aesthetics of the films that the man made, Robert Downey Mr. Its main protagonists are the character that gives its title to the documentary and its most famous actor son. Although neither Downey (or Sr. or Jr.) is directing the film, it's clearly a family affair, a way the actor from IRON MAN found to accompany his father in his last years, settle some personal problems and, at the same time, make known his work. In any case, given the humorous, anarchic and satirical style of his father's films, M. it almost never becomes a classic, dark or heavy documentary. Rather, for much of its duration, the film deals with the nearness of death in a comedic tone.
Robert Downey Jr.'s father was a typical '60s filmmaker, one of those who started making films as part of the era's counterculture, with no motivation other than to poke fun at the establishment, criticize him with humor and, at the same time, portray his time from the point of view of a mischievous, funny and anarchic New Yorker (his films could be somewhere between the first of Woody Allen and those of John Waters, but even more chaotic) who used to make his films in a very artisanal way, including his family in many of them. and this is the Context by Downey Jr., who retained and perfected his father's comedic streak, which is more than evident when you analyze his acting style.
Robert Downey Mr. is organized like behind the scenes of the documentary itself, with scenes filmed, discussed, jokingly cut and with a nice "distraction" that is placed on the control that M. wants to have of what is filmed, generating a kind of 'alternative cut to which his son and the director of the film, Chris Smith (AMERICAN MOVIE), they want to do. Thus, the documentary advances through the life and work of the actor's father, focusing on several of his films (the best known is putney shotfrom 1969, but he made dozens of them, including GREASER'S PALACE, FRUIT ELBOWS and his failed attempt to make a studio film, titled THE ACADEMY) and also in his life, the obvious complications of which are treated here quite lightly.
Downey Sr. spent more than a decade living with heavy addictions, something his son inherited that clearly marked each other's personal lives and the relationship between them. But M. It's not done with the intention of laying down the ink or blaming it, but rather it's told in a frank and honest way, without excessive dramatic or sentimental charge. “We are born, we do things and we die,” Jr. said at one point. And it is, in a way, the spirit of this film whose “therapeutic” side is slightly hidden by layers of humor and family jokes.
The film will include Jr.'s young children and wife, his father's wife – and the memories of his two previous deceased ones – and will show the intimacy of the two in a production process marked by the slow but gradual appearance of the Parkinson in the Life of Robert Sr. The documentary can be a bit chaotic and disorganized, but it certainly respects the tone that his father's films had, which is clear from watching scenes from many of them made in the years 60s and 70s. And this wise decision allows M. have a welcome lightness depending on the subject you are discussing.
Perhaps the most important thing about the production, something that starts to become clear as the disease starts to be a bit more visible and obvious, is understanding that the "shooting" itself could well serve as an excuse not only for the son to accompany the father during his last years, but also to keep him busy, active, editing his own story, planning shots, camera angles and discussing these decisions with Smith and especially with his son. A) Yes, Robert Downey Mr. manages to move without ever betraying the spirit of the project, that of a son's homage not only to his father's life but to his way of understanding and looking at it.
SOURCE: Reviews News
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