Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood’s ultimate male heartthrob. But throughout his years of stardom, Tab had a secret. Tab Hunter was gay, and spent his Hollywood years in a precarious closet that repeatedly threatened to implode and destroy him. Tab Hunter himself shares first hand, for the first time, what it was like to be a studio manufactured movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood and the consequences of being someone totally different from his studio manufactured image.
Tab Hunter Confidential is a warm and candid documentary built around its subject's own candid first-person account, making it more intimate than the typical Hollywood biography. The narrative of a closeted Golden Age star is inherently compelling, and Hunter's openness lends it genuine emotional weight. However, the film is formally conventional — talking heads, archival footage, chronological structure — so cinematography earns only a below-average mark. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense but the on-camera presence of Hunter and interviewees is engaging. Novelty is modestly above average given the specific personal angle and the era it covers, but the documentary form itself is unremarkable. The ending, while reflective and touching, follows the expected arc of late-life reconciliation and acceptance without a striking final note.