A documentary about Val Kilmer with the voice of his son Jack, because Val Kilmer had throat cancer, is considered cancer-free since 2017, but his voice suffered from "extensive radiation and chemotherapy."
"Val" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in July and is now available to watch on Amazon.
What you know about Val Kilmer as an actor and a person always depends on how much you've studied him.
I knew that Val Kilmer had his difficulties on some film shoots in the 90s with directors (e.g. John Frankenheimer - "The island of Dr. Moreau", Joel Schuhmacher - "Batman Forever") and some fellow actors, so it was difficult for him to find roles from the mid 90s and he appeared more and more in B-movies and indepentend films. Ok.
The documentary is told from his point of view and we learn quite a bit about his childhood, his family, his acting beginnings, his career highlights and his present (anno documentary).
With a running time of about 108 minutes, a rather quiet, prudent narrative reveals a man who does not necessarily reflect everything as it was at the time, but reflects on the stations of his life at that time and shows us more the current Val Kilmer and in rare footage the Val Kilmer of that time. As for disputes with fellow actors, Val Kilmer is silent. That is also not the subject of the documentary, the gossip press can report on it. As far as problems with directors are concerned, I think they are only mentioned in one film, but that's not the topic either.
Here an actor shows how he came to acting and what it means to him, in a retrospective with quiet tones. Sometimes it's hard to understand Val Kilmer himself when he's speaking, but it's the unpretentiousness here and there that makes this documentary work. Val Kilmer recorded an incredible amount of his life himself and the documentary shows very private footage of his childhood with his brothers, his parents and his acting, be it in his own home movies, applications for movies, his "practicing" lines from Hamlet, etc.
Overall, fascinating, very moving, informative and very interesting, this (self-)portrait of an actor and artist who has a great sense of family and an incredibly wide range of acting.
Recommended.
