Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
With commentary from Hollywood stars, outtakes from his movies and footage from his youth, this documentary looks at Stanley Kubrick's life and films. Director Jan Harlan, Kubrick's brother-in-law and sometime collaborator, interviews heavyweights like Jack Nicholson, Woody Allen and Sydney Pollack, who explain the influence of Kubrick classics like "Dr. Strangelove" and "2001: A Space Odyssey," and how he absorbed visual clues from disposable culture such as television commercials.
A competent and affectionate tribute to one of cinema's greatest auteurs, buoyed by remarkable archival footage and candid interviews with major collaborators and admirers. Jan Harlan's insider access lends authenticity, and the clips from Kubrick's films are well-chosen. However, the documentary follows a fairly conventional chronological career-survey structure, offering little formal innovation of its own — ironic given its subject. The ending feels somewhat anticlimactic rather than delivering a truly resonant summation of Kubrick's legacy. Solid but unremarkable as a piece of filmmaking in itself.