Sly

This is a really well done look at the journey of Sylvester Stallone from a poor kid in Hell's Kitchen to a superstar. Stallone, as noted by rival Arnold Schwarzenegger, is the only person who spear-headed three blockbuster franchises-Rocky, Rambo, and The Expendables. He was a guy driven by passion, vision, and the belief that he had more to offer than people could see. I love how a senior Stallone walks us along this journey. We see his thought processes. We see his written notebooks. We see the physical locations where he grew up and where much of the pictures were shot. The personal interviews. The old movie footage. Everything about this makes the documentary greater than the sum of its parts.

Sly may not be a deep dive into Sylvester Stallone's career but it's an emotional and engaging look into the life and career of a superstar on his own terms. Even if it can't cover everything it still hits the major milestones (and Expendables) whilst still having time for Stallone to acknowledge his own flaws and regrets.

There've been so many jokes about Stallone being an unintelligible muscle man so it's nice to have this to set the record straight. He's a really insightful actor who's put so much of himself in his movies. There are a few times Stallone's decisions and refusal to back down created some of cinema's best moments as well as some missteps he acknowledges which shows how far he's come.

Just as engaging as the anecdotes about filmmaking and how Rocky in particular was created are his observations about life. The pain, the loss and the speed it goes by are all discussed in a very frank manner with some heavy yet beautiful quotes that remind you Sly has a real way with words, in life and on the page.

There's also a great selection of interviews with other people in between Stallone's discussions, some who make perfect sense including Frank Stallone just generally being the best and Arnold Schwarzenegger getting to offer some funny stories about their infamous rivalry as well as others who are just cool to see (Quentin Tarantino!).

Thom Zimny's direction is great overall. Swapping effortlessly between the interviews and archive footage throughout with a generally nice vibe that means you don't want it to end. It only briefly falters in a few moments where it distracts from Stallone's openness by shaking the camera too much in an attempt to get as close as possible.

The articulate man behind Rambo and Rocky still suffers the wound of his father's abuse. Yet he has beaten that wound by having a fabulous career. This documentary just made me want to give Stallone a hug and tell him -'life is STILL GOOD, Stop and smell the roses!' In a capacity the dogged sadness about his failures seems theatrical too. Is he acting through his own biopic? Probably. I wanna send him to go watch Nyad, another flick on Netflix that talks to how life is really NOT over for people on their later years. It feels like the 'antidote' to Stallone moping. Where is his therapist? I love Sly but depression present here is just a disservice to his contributions.

'Sly' (2023) is good. Its fine. Nothing really bad about it except for being too short especially for a legend in film and American culture, Sylvester Stallone. Besides that it remains an interesting and inspiring look at Stallone's life.

This documentary should have been a docuseries like his rival, Arnold Schwarzenegger had done. Since Stallone is known for his amazing action-hero characters most people will never see the more intellectual and personal side of his life that is his true character.

Led by Stallone's narration with sparse but insightful interviews, this film gives a great look behind the scenes of some his most legendary films like 'Rocky' (1976) which lays the foundation for Stallone's career.

Its good. Definitely give it a watch but get ready as you'll likely want to binge Sly's films for the next few weeks. So get some popcorn ready!

I'm only going to compare this documentary to Arnold Schwarzenegger's because it is brought up so prominently in both of them how competitive they were. How toe to toe they went in the 80s making bigger and bigger action films and getting larger and larger grosses (not to mention biceps).

That said, Arnold's was better. I preferred Schwarzenegger's because it went deeper into his personal life and even his faults as a man and a husband.

Sly, the documentary, was good. But it mostly focused on his career. After the obligatory stuff about how he grew up and what a sonofabitch his father was, it was all about the movies. The hits and the flops. I'd've liked to have heard more about his marriages and his relationship with his kooky mother (which is completely overlooked) and especially about losing his son. Even his other business adventures are ignored. Wasn't he an investor in Planet Hollywood? We hear nothing about that.

Anyway, I enjoyed this. It was the perfect airplane diversion as I killed 7 hours over the Atlantic. But like the Arnold doc, I think Sly's life deserves more than a 2 hour recap. I could have handled at least twice that as long as the second part dove deeper into the man himself.