DE PALMA (2016) ****

Noah (Frances Ha) Baumbach and Jake (Young Ones) Paltrow aren’t the first two guys you’d expect to make a documentary about Brian De Palma.  Thank God that they did.  It’s essential viewing for De Palma die-hards, or for anyone who loves cinema in general.

Baumbach and Paltrow are slavish to chronology, which makes me love the documentary even more.  They go through De Palma’s filmography with a fine-tooth comb, starting with his early experimental ‘60s movies and moving onwards.  In between clips of his films, we see De Palma talking about the movies and giving on-set anecdotes and dishing out a wealth of fascinating technical and incidental information.  This approach works, mostly because you get to see his work as an artist slowly take shape over the years, but also because every one of his films is covered.  You knew they were going to go in-depth on Scarface, but did you expect them to spend so much time on Mission to Mars?  Heck, even the underrated Wise Guys gets its due!

Folks, this is simply a two-hour film school.  Some may grouse about the rhythm of the movie as it goes from film clip to talking head shot of De Palma to film clip.  Me?  I loved the conciseness of the project.  Few filmmakers deserved a documentary of this nature.  Hell, fewer filmmakers have a filmography worth discussing for two hours.  

You know what, there’s a part of me that wishes it was twice as long.  That’s mostly because De Palma is so damned interesting.  He’s a born storyteller.  Even without a camera, he’s fascinating just sitting there talking movies.  Whether he’s regaling us with war stories from his battles with the ratings board or talking shit on the Carrie remakes, De Palma holds court like few can.  As a filmmaker, there are few finer.  His misfires are more interesting than most directors’ best work. Even his worst films have his distinct fingerprints all over them, which is something that can’t be said for most filmmakers.