There’s scenes in the movie, like when a group of motorcycles drive past in Far Rockaway, and he’s like, ‘Yes, did you get that?’ The psychotherapist Esther Perel defines erotic as something not sexual, necessarily, but being open, curious, and alive to life itself. That’s what it is though! This movie is an homage to your dad’s process, which is exactly that. Wait, wait, wait: Let’s enjoy this moment. Apologies, I’m losing my train of thought here for a second. Robert, wouldn’t you say in some way, even though the movie is an homage to your father’s work, it’s a contemplation of death, it’s about fathers and sons, it’s about families … uh. Without trying to make the movie unnecessarily challenging, we were trying to make it thoughtful and different. And that was one of the big learnings from spending time with Sr.-and it’s affected my life going forward-is everything is always an opportunity to do what is not expected. or Jr., you realize that both of them are looking to do what’s not obvious. I feel that you try and follow and be true to the subject matter you’re documenting, right? If you spend time with Robert Downey, Sr. I love what it is-and it’s more than one thing-but also what it is not: the traditional, addiction confessional.ĬHRIS SMITH: I know Robert had thoughts on that. I love him for what he didn’t do.” And I feel the same way about your movie in certain ways. I started vibing on the way he might sound, what his specifics were.Ĭhris, in the documentary, Robert says about his dad, “I love him for what he did. I’m not surprised that you would relate, because I automatically got a sense of Wow, I wonder what Alex’s pop was like. ROBERT DOWNEY JR.: There’s a whole generation of humans, in this case we’ll talk about the guys, those east coast guys, the generation they came out of, the generation they inherited, and all of the stuff they were navigating while still contributing to a kind of charisma gap. My father, who has been dead for almost 16 years, was a year younger than your dad and grew up a few neighborhoods away in NYC. roll his eyes.ĮSQUIRE: I appreciate you making this movie. turned into art both unexpected and complete-and something that would make Sr. In an intimate, frank discussion, Downey Jr. physically so much bigger than Jr., you feel how much Jr. (The final scene in the documentary is from Greaser’s Palace.) Early in the movie, when you see a still photograph of father and son, Sr. He doesn’t let him off the hook-they discuss how Sr.’s addiction impacted Jr.-but gives him the last word. Downey Jr., who is at turns charismatic, self-conscious, well-intentioned and tender, extends gobs of generosity his father’s way. Smith, director of 2017’s Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, has long shown a keen sensitivity and interest in people and how they interact with the world, and Sr. primer, enough to get you excited to see his masterpieces, Putney Swope (1971) and Greaser’s Palace (1972), both of which are streaming for free on Tubi. His movies are fabulously weird, full-on laugh riots, and Smith does a wonderful job of curating tasty cuts for us. Downey Sr., a true dees and dose mid-century New Yorker, forever quick with a remark and a mischievous look in his eye, was the kind of guy alive to the spontaneity of the moment. is also funny? Which makes the whole thing sing. It’s about what’s said and left unsaid, and, oh yeah, it’s also a beautiful, clear-eyed meditation on death.ĭid we mention Sr. grapples with fathers and sons and the distance between them, as well as addiction and its consequences. The film covers illness, too-Sr., who died in 2020, suffered from Parkinson’s. It’s both an appreciation of Sr.’s body of work and a document of him in action. is about a radical filmmaker who, for a generation, was part of any unsentimental cultural education that included Hubert Selby Jr., Melvin Van Peebles, and Penny Arcade, on through Jello Biafra. Which is just one of the stories in this enveloping pastiche of a filmmaker and his son, Robert Downey Jr.-maybe you’ve heard of him? How do you make a documentary about a man who doesn’t have the slightest interest in talking about himself? Well, in the case of Sr., the Netflix documentary directed by Chris Smith (streaming tomorrow), since the subject is the underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., you make a movie about a man making a movie.
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