Let's compare and contrast the two big celebrity documentaries that came out over the summer, "Val" about the life of actor Val Kilmer, and "Roadrunner," which profiles the departed chef, writer, and presenter Anthony Bourdain. I came into these films knowing very little about either of them, and found one film considerably more entertaining and interesting than the other.
To be fair, these are very different features. "Val" is something of an autobiopic, relying largely on the participation of the still living Val Kilmer, who shot all the footage and wrote all of the narration, delivered in the first person singular by his son Jack. Kilmer suffered the loss of his voice after a battle with throat cancer in 2015, and we hear him a few times in the documentary using a voice box. "Val" reminds me a lot of "Listen to Me Marlon," the recent Marlon Brando documentary that looks back at the life and career of the actor using his own words and observations as a framing device.
The weakness of the film is also its strength - this is an extremely subjective narrative. We get the highlights of Kilmer's acting career from his POV, which is fascinating, but also feels heavily truncated. He loved doing "The Doors" and "Tombstone," and shares plenty of footage from those projects, but didn't care much for "Batman Forever," and other films are barely acknowledged. Roughly twenty years of his post-"Batman" career goes by in a five minute montage. A big running thread through the film is Kilmer's struggle to stay a serious actor in the face of the demands of commercial success. It's acknowledged that he had a reputation as a "difficult" actor at the height of his fame, and had various career and financial struggles, but the film doggedly refuses to address these subjects in any depth.
"Val" is more engaging and more touching when it looks in on Kilmer's private life - his childhood and early passion for the stage, his troubled marriage, and his relationships with his children. I found the sequences with the present-day Kilmer very touching, as they depict him getting on as well as he can with the help of family and friends. We see his continuing artistic endeavors and his efforts to stay connected to the world after having to largely give up acting. It's easy to admire and sympathize with him and I certainly wish him well in all his future pursuits.
However, for a fuller picture of a major celebrity, "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain" is much more satisfying to watch. Directed by Morgan Neville, who stirred up some controversy by using a "deepfake" voice for a few lines of Bourdain's narration, "Roadrunner" presents Bourdain's POV on his life and work, but also heavily supplements this with interviews from the ones who knew him best - family members, friends, colleagues, and co-workers. The portrait that emerges is of a wildly talented, adventurous, admirable man who was up against a lot of personal demons and a lot of bad habits. He enriched the lives of those around him and was deeply loved, but grew steadily less satisfied with the state of his life and relationships as his fame grew.
"Roadrunner" spends equal time with the high points and the low points of Bourdain's life, including his suicide in 2018. We get behind-the-scenes looks at the process of putting together his beloved food and travel shows, meeting some of the people behind the camera who were with him the whole way, and learning about some of the drama that happened offscreen. Having a more well-rounded, complete picture of Bourdain makes him come off as all the more fascinating and admirable. It doesn't hurt that so much of the footage is absolutely gorgeous, following Bourdain around the globe as he travels from one country to another for "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown." The interviewees include David Choe, Eric Ripert, and other fascinating figures whose relationships with Bourdain were sometimes difficult.
"Roadrunner" is a more typical kind of biographical documentary than "Val," and perhaps takes some liberties that it shouldn't in the name of telling a good story. However, "Roadrunner" was ultimately the picture that did a better job of convincing me that it had a story worth telling.
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