Tag: documentaries

Review: ‘The Curious Case of…,’ starring Beth Karas

January 18, 2025

by Carla Hay

“The Curious Case of …” (Photo courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

“The Curious Case of …”

Culture Representation: The documentary/reality series “The Curious Case of …” features a predominantly white group of people (with some people of color) talking about crimes that took place in various parts of the United States.

Culture Clash: Various people are the accusers and are accused of crimes.

Culture Audience: “The Curious Case of …” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries, but the show’s tabloid approach lowers the quality of this series.

“The Curious Case of …” is a spinoff series to “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,”  a three-season series hat became one of the biggest ratings hits for Investigation Discovery. Instead focusing on one case for the entire series, “The Curious Case of …” features a different case per episode. This shoddily made program is exploitative reality TV pretending to be an investigative docuseries. The only thing viewers will learn is how this tacky show enables attention seekers of dubious credibility.

“The Curious Case of …” is produced for Investigation Discovery by Hot Snakes Media, the same production company behind “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.” The third and final season of “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” devolved into antics and meltdowns with reality show editing. “The Curious Case of …” seems to be continuing that tone, to the detriment of the show’s subject matter.

Legal analyst Beth Karas, who was prominently featured in “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,” is the host and narrator of “The Curious Case of …,” a show that seems to be way beneath her talent and expertise as a former assistant district attorney in New York City. Karas also used to be an on-air correspondent for Court TV in the 1990s and 2000s. On “The Curious Case of …,” she doesn’t do interviews or hard-hitting investigations. She’s just relegated to doing analyses and recaps of some of the cringeworthy shenanigans on display.

The first episode of “The Curious Case of …” (only episode available for review before the series premiere) is nothing but a bait and switch that can be considered insulting to viewers looking for a real true crime story. The episode, titled is “The Curious of … Bam Margera,” and is advertised as a close look at the legal troubles of former “Jackass” star Bam Margera and whether or not he should be under a guardianship. Born in 1979, Margera is a former skateboarder and TV personality whose fame peaked in the 2000s. He has been publicly battling drug addiction and has had various arrests over the years.

Instead of being about Margera, the episode is really about a feud between entrepreneur Lima Jevremović (who was Margera’s guardian from June 2021 to July 2023) and YouTuber BJ Corville, a lawyer who is the self-proclaimed leader of the Free Bam movement that believes he should not be under a guardianship. Karas says about the topic of the episode: “This is a show about the right to make your own decisions.” Actually, it’s not. It’s more about people making fools out of themselves on camera.

Margera is not interviewed for this show. Instead, the only exclusive footage the show was able to get of him are two brief clips (less than five minutes each) of Margera shouting angrily while he’s outside of his home in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In the first clip, which is the episode’s opening scene, Margera and his girlfriend Dannii Marie (who is unidentified on the show and whose face is blurred out on camera) are seen confronting Jevremović.

It’s later explained that Jeramovic called police to report that she heard Bam threaten his older brother Jesse, who rents a home on the property that Bam has named Bam Castle. A Pennsylvania state trooper has arrived at the scene. Bam, wearing a long black towel over his head, walks over to Jevremović and says loudly to her: “Why are you so evil?” Bam’s girlfriend, who is also hostile, points angrily to Jeramovic and yells some choice words, including, “Get the fuck away from me!” They both get into a car and leave. Ultimately, no one was arrested or detained in this incident.

Bam is also seen ranting about his brother behind a fence after Bam has spray painted a wall with graffiti. Bam, who is wearing sunglasses and fuzzy animal slippers, appears to be under the influence of an unknown substance. Whatever his state of mind is in this footage, it’s obviously not good.

This episode named after Bam Margera goes off on a number of tangents, and it fails to really be an insightful look at Bam and his problems. There are brief mentions of his 2022 arrest for assaulting Jesse. The legal outcome of that case is mentioned in the episode’s epilogue.

In an intervew for this episode, Bam’s former “Jackass” costar Stephen Glover, whose stage name is Steve-O, talks about himself as much as he talks about Bam. “Jackass” (a show about people doing reckless, gross and/or painful stunts) originally aired on MTV from 2000 to 2001 and grew into a franchise that included spinoff shows and several movies. Bam starred in two of those spinoff shows: “Viva La Bam” and “Bam’s Unholy Union.”

Glover says that when he and Bam first started working together, Bam wasn’t into drugs and Glover was heavily addicted to drugs. Glover (who says he’s been clean and sober since 2008) comments in the interview about Bam’s downward spiral: “Over the course of 20 years, we’ve had almost total role reversal … It’s been so hard to watch.” Glover also questions the legitimacy of Jevremović being able to help Bam with Bam’s problems.

Bam’s mother April Margera gives a very short and tearful interview about her family turmoil. According to Jevremović, Bam’s parents hired her to be his unpaid legal guardian because they believed her alternative rehab therapy methods could work for Bam and because none of Bam’s family members or friends wanted to be his legal guardian. Jevremović is not a licensed therapist and does not have any medical credentials to treat these health issues.

At the time, Los Angeles-based Jevremović was the founder of Aura, a small business that used virtual reality as a way to treat addiction and mental illness. She babbles some explanation about how Aura uses virtual reality scenarios that users can see by wearing virtual reality headsets, in order to identify clients’ self-destructive “triggers.” Karas compares Jevremović’s murky methods to what convicted con artist Elizaebth Holmes tried to do with Holmes’ fraudulent Theranos company.

Why did Bam’s parents think Jevremović was a legitimate healer? Apparently, they heard about her “rehab success” with a drug-addicted woman named Amanda Rabb, who was featured on the YouTube channel Soft White Underbelly, which interviews people with major problems—usually addictions and serious criminal activities. Jevremović and Rabb (who was born in 1995) went on Soft White Underbelly to talk about how Rabb was able to recover from her addictions with help from Jevremović and Aura.

Rabb died in 2021 of cardiac arrhythmia. But when Jevremović went on the the channel to state Rabb’s cause of death, Jevremović said that Rabb died of a seizure disorder. Soft White Underbelly founder Mark Laita says in an interview that Jevremović was in no way responsible for Rabb’s death.

By this time, Courville (who operates the YouTube channel BJ Investigates from her home in Princeton, New Jersey) had become an ally of Bam and already launched a campaign to discredit Jevremović. Courville’s followers are part of an online community called That Surprise Army. One of the followers, identified only has Jaimie, admits in an interview that she was one of the people who participated in online bullying of Jevremović.

The episode mentions the Free Britney movement in comparison to the Free Bam movement. It’s a weak comparison because these are two very different legal situations. The Free Britney movement, which began online in 2020, was about fans of Britney Spears protesting against Spears being under a conservatorship overseen by her father Jamie Spears since 2008. The conservatorship ended in 2021.

Karas explains that a conservatorship involves control over many aspects over someone’s life, including financial control. Bam was under a guardianship, which consists of control over medical decisions in someone’s life, not financial control. Still, the Free Bam movement often mislabeled his guardianship as a conservatorship.

As an example of how off-topic this episode gets, there’s a large amount of time showing Jevremović’s family problems. Jevremović says she grew up in an abusive household where she, her younger twin sisters Dahlia and Dia, and their mother Linda were all abused by a family member who is not named. Dahlia and Dia have mental health issues. At one point, Dahlia goes missing, so there’s footage of Linda, Dia and Lima looking for her.

Courville talks about her own family problems. She says that he father died from a methamphetamine overdose when she was in her first year of law school. Courville comments that her father’s death is why she has empathy for people who struggle with drug addiction. She also admits that she ramped up her efforts to prove that Jevremović was a fraud after she saw that Jevremović stated a cause of death for Rabb that was different from the offcial medical examiner report.

Linda claims that she and her twin daughters had to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to flee from the harassment they were getting from That Surprise Army. Dahlia had a mental breakdown and Linda called the police because Linda said Dahlia attacked her. Police body cam footage shows Dahlia ranting about Linda forcing her into sex trafficking.

When Courville got ahold of this body cam footage, she posted it online. Accusations flew and gossip spread about Linda being a sex trafficker, which are allegations that Linda vehemently denies. All of this feuding is just so sordid and is not about Bam at all. Casey Fowler, a former member That Surprise Army, says he quit the group because he didn’t agree with how Courville and That Surprise Army were going after the Jevremović family.

And do we really need to know what are these feuders’ favorite movies are? No, but “The Curious Case of …” tellls us anyway. Courville says the comedy film “Legally Blonde” inspired her to become a lawyer. Jevremović says the movies that inspired her the most were the gangster dramas “The Godfather” and “Scarface.” You can come to your own conclusions about what that all means, but it’s example of how the episode goes off the rails into irrelevant topics.

The editing, music and cinematography in “The Curious Case of …” reek of techniques used by trashy reality shows. For whatever reason, there are multiple and repetitive closeups of Courville (who wears fuzzy pink cat ears in her interview) pursing her lips in a smug manner or putting on lipstick. “The Curious Case of …” doesn’t seem to care about treating sensitive issues with dignity. This show ultimately embarrasses many of its participants for the sake of “entertainment.”

Investigation Discovery premiered “The Curious Case of …” on January 13, 2025.

Review: ‘Scam Goddess,’ starring Laci Mosley

January 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Laci Mosley in “Scam Goddess” (Photo courtesy of Freeform)

“Scam Goddess”

Culture Representation: The documentary/reality series “Scam Goddess” features a predominantly white group of people (with some people of color) talking about well-known fraud crimes that took place in various parts of the United States.

Culture Clash: Laci Mosley, the show’s host, explores and discusses the cultures and mindsets that led to the scammers conning their victims.

Culture Audience: “Scam Goddess” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about fraud and theft, but the comedic approach to this subject matter can be very off-putting to this frequently tacky show.

Laci Mosley in “Scam Goddess” (Photo courtesy of Freeform)

“Scam Goddess” seems more like an imprudent showcase for host Laci Mosley’s aspiring acting career than a worthwhile true crime docuseries. The show’s scripted comedy elements are awkward, stupid and borderline disrespectful to the victims of these crimes. The “Scam Goddess” narration and contrived scenarios often make Mosley look like an immature teenager who sees true crime as a way for her to dress up in different costumes and tell bad jokes that she thinks are hilarious.

“Scam Goddess” is produced by ABC News Studios in association with The Intellectual Property Corporation (IPC), a part of Sony Pictures Television. David Sloan is senior executive producer. Executive producers are Carrie Cook, Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman and John Henshaw. Mosley, who is also the host of the “Scam Goddess” podcast describes herself as a comedian, actress and an “expert” in true crime cases involving fraud and theft. Whatever “expertise” she has is not on display in this TV series, which makes her look more like goofy fangirl of true crime rather than a professional “expert” in anything.

The first “Scam Goddess” TV episode, titled “The Horseplay Heist,” tells the story of convicted embezzler Rita Crundwell, who stole $53.7 million from 1990 to 2012 from the small city of Dixon, Illinois (population: about 15,000 people, as of the 2020 census), where she worked as the city’s treasurer and comptroller at the same time. If you know anything about city government, then you probably know that it’s a huge conflict of interest for anyone to be a treasurer and comptroller at the same time. Crundwell (who was born in 1953) was arrested in 2012. The episode mentions the outcome of her case.

Crundwell, a divorcée with no children, came from a farm family in Dixon. She started as an intern for the city and eventually got a full-time job in 1983 as the city’s treasurer and later added the title comptroller. Crundwell flaunted her lavish spending with high-priced purchases, such as show horses, custom furnishings for her house, expensive jewelry and a $2 million recreational motor home.

Crundwell was a fanatic about horses (she reportedly owned about 400 at the same time) and prided herself on buying, selling and breeding champion show horses. She stole money from the city by creating a secret bank account in the city’s name. And because she was the only person with the authority to be a signee on this account, she withdrew funds from this secret bank account for her spending sprees. Crundwell’s salary for her city government job was only $80,000 a year. Dixon people interviewed in this episode say that they assumed her wealth came from her horse business and/or other investments.

The episode shows Mosley in Dixon, where she interviews some of the residents to find out more about why Crundwell got away with this crime spree for so long. Among the people she interviews are Jim Dixon, a descendant of the city’s founders; Tom Wadsworth, a former high school classmate of Crundwell’s; Matthew Heckman, Dixon’s public works director; Danny Langloss, Dixon’s city manager; a woman only identified as Kathy, a former Dixon journalist; and Kathe Swanson, Dixon’s former deputy treasurer, who worked with Crundwell for about 20 years and was the one who discovered and reported Crundwell’s embezzlement.

The people interviewed all describe Crundwell as a master manipulator who was able to gain people’s trust and who was very skilled at coming up with believable lies if anyone questioned her about anything suspicious. Crundwell had so much unchecked power over the city’s finances, she ordered her staff for years to keep cutting budgets because she said that the city couldn’t afford many of the things that were needed. It wasn’t until Swanson discovered the secret bank account that it was clear where a lot of the city’s money was really going.

The word “interview” is a very loose description of what Mosley does on this show. She changes wigs and outfits for each interview, which she treats more like a “look at me” comedy skit where she asks basic questions. It should come as no surprise in a story about a con artist who’s obsessed with horses, Mosley dresses up in a cowgirl outfit and rides a horse in the episode. These antics have nothing to do with the actual crimes but are just an example of the show’s tasteless and unfunny tone. Mosley’s scripted narration for the show is overbearing and cringeworthy.

When Mosley first arrives in Dixon (whose main claim to fame is being the childhood hometown of U.S. President Ronald Reagan), she makes mocking commentary about all the Ronald Reagan memorabilia and Ronald Reagan tributes in the city. When she goes to bar to interview some locals, a man named Norman walks in, and people call out his name. “This is ‘Cheers,'” Mosley quips, in reference to how the bar customers in the TV sitcom “Cheers” would call out the name of regular customer Norm every time he entered the bar. The Norman scene in “Scam Goddess” looks very fake and scripted.

In case there’s any doubt that Mosley has a tone-deaf approach to this subject matter, there’s a scene in this episode that confirms it. Langloss tells Mosley that when Crundwell was Dixon’s treasurer/comptroller, the Dixon Police Department had outdated communications equipment and requested upgraded equipment because the outdated equipment wasn’t working in certain parts of the city. Crundwell turned down the request because she said the city didn’t have the money for this upgrade.

After Mosley hears this sobering fact, she admits out loud to Langloss that she thought the story of Crundwell’s fraud was laughably funny until she realized that Crundwell’s theft directly impacted the ability of a police department to help people and potentially save lives. It’s quite appalling that someone who’s a self-proclaimed “scam goddess” hasn’t figured out that these crimes are not a joke and can do real damage to people. Anyone who watches “Scam Goddess” can easily figure out that this time-wasting series is just a way to exploit these crimes for cheap and crass entertainment.

Freeform premiered “Scam Goddess” on January 15, 2025.

Review: ‘Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,’ starring Al B. Sure!, Gene Deal, Sara Rivers, Tim Patterson, Ariel Mitchell, Lisa Bloom and Mylan Morales

January 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Al B. Sure! in “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” (Photo courtesy of Peacock)

“Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy”

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” features a predominantly black group of people (with some white people and one Asian person) talking about the rise and fall of disgraced mogul/entertainer Sean Combs.

Culture Clash: Several of the people who are interviewed claim that Combs abuses his fame and power to commit crimes that allegedly include assaults, various sex crimes, racketeering, attempted murder and murder.

Culture Audience: “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about celebrities and can tolerate graphic details in sex scandals.

Sara Rivers in “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” (Photo courtesy of Peacock)

“Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” can be recommended to watch only for some of the revealing interviews and previously unreleased footage. However, the tabloid-ish format lowers the quality of this documentary, which needed more cohesive timeline editing. Depending on how much a viewer knows about disgraced mogul/entertainer Sean Combs’ previously reported scandals, “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” will either be shocking or substantiating when it comes to his very troubled life.

There is no director credited for “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” which is a production of AMPLE Entertainment, Blink Films and FGW Productions. The executive producers are Ari Mark, Phil Lott, Sumit David, Stephanie Frederic, Laura Jones and Justine Kershaw. There is a very good variety of people interviewed who have had contact with Combs in some way, including childhood friends, former employees, ex-colleagues, journalists and attorneys. However, the documentary isn’t comprehensive and leaves out or sidelines some details.

Through captions, “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” shows multiple statements from Combs’ attorneys denying all the accusations that have been made against Combs in the documentary and elsewhere. At the time this documentary was released, Combs was being held without bail in a New York City jail on federal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, after being arrested in September 2024. He is also facing several civil lawsuits, most having to do with sex crimes—including accusations of raping women, men and children—with some of these alleged crimes going as far back as the 1990s. Many of the accusers say that Combs drugged them without their consent.

Combs (who was born in New York City on November 4, 1969) is known for being a mogul in entertainment, fashion and alcoholic beverages, as well as being a recording artist, music producer and occasional actor. Over the years, he has had several nicknames, including Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, Diddy and Love. He has a long list of celebrity associates who have said they are his close friends, including Jay-Z, Ashton Kutcher and Mary J. Blige. Some of the artists whom Combs has mentored include Justin Bieber and Usher. As of this writing, these celebrities have not publicly commented on Combs’ legal problems that have landed him in jail.

Out of all the people interviewed in “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” R&B singer/producer Al B. Sure! makes the most explosive allegations, by claiming that Combs was involved in a conspiracy to murder Sure, who was hospitalized and in a coma in 2022 for renal failure and a liver transplant. Sure also claims that his ex-girlfriend Kim Porter (the mother of their son Quincy) was murdered and did not die of pneumonia (the official cause of her death) in 2018. According to Sure, Porter was murdered because she was about to go public about Combs abusing her and committing other crimes.

Sure (whose real name is Albert Joseph Brown III) was one of the first artists at Uptown Records, the company founded by Andre Harrell, who died of heart failure at at age 59, in 2020. Combs started as an intern at Uptown in 1991, and he eventually rose to Vice President of A&R until he was fired in 1993. Not long after Combs was fired from Uptown, he launched Bad Boy Entertainment, which started as a record company and expanded into other business ventures.

Combs and Sure were connected not just for business reasons but also for personal reasons. According to Sure, he was in a committed relationship with Porter (a model who used to work as Uptown’s receptionist), and they were raising their son Quincy (born in 1991), when Combs aggressively moved in on Porter and convinced her to be Combs’ girlfriend. Combs and Porter then became an on-again/off-again couple from 1994 to 2007. Combs adopted Quincy and had three biological kids with Porter: son Christian (born in 1998 and nicknamed King) and twin daughters Jessie and D’Lila Combs (born in 2006). Combs has another son named Justin (born in 1993) from a relationship with stylist Misa Hylton.

Although “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” is the first time that Sure has spoken about these accusations in an on-camera interview, he does not provide any proof that Porter was murdered, nor does the documentary investigate further. The documentary also fails to give details or ask questions about what other health issues could have contributed to Sure’s hospitalization. If Sure thinks he was the victim of attempted murder, how did this alleged crime happen? Was he poisoned? If so, how? Don’t expect this documentary to answer those questions.

Sure says in the documentary that he can’t go into specifics for “legal reasons,” as he hints that he is in the midst of some legal issues regarding this accusation of attempted murder. He cryptically says that he has “a file” on the people he believes are behind the attempted murder, and he hints that Combs is the mastermind of this alleged conspiracy. Considering all the other violent crimes that Combs is accused of committing, this accusation is just one more to add to the mess of scandals that have disgraced Combs.

“Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy,” as the title suggests, goes all the way back to Combs’ childhood to try to make sense of how his life ended up this way. Childhood friends (who all worked with Combs in the 1990s), such as Tim Patterson, Lee Davis (also known as DJ EZ Lee) and Rich Parker give interviews and talk about how Combs stood out for being ambitious and fashionable, even if he was bullied for it. From an early age, Combs was very conscious of his image, which he always projected as being more privileged, business savvy and upwardly mobile than his peers. But as time went on, and Combs gained more money and power, these childhood friends admit this child who used to be bullied grew up to be a bully himself with a very nasty temper.

Of these childhood friends in the documentary, Patterson has the most interesting things to say because when he was a boy, he and his single mother lived for a while with Combs and his widowed mother Janice Combs in Mount Vernon, New York, when Patterson and his mother fell on hard times. In the documentary, Patterson shares some childhood photos of himself and Sean. Considering that Patterson says that he has not been in touch with Sean since 1999, Patterson’s perspective is not very helpful in commenting on Sean’s recent legal problems.

Sean’s father Melvin Combs was a drug dealer/police informant who was murdered (shot to death) at age 33, when Sean was 2 years old. The murder remains unsolved. The death of Sean’s father had a profound impact on Sean, according to people who knew him in his youth who say that Sean tended to glamorize the gangster lifestyle. Patterson mentions in the documentary that when Sean was a teenager, Sean was involved in the same gang that was associated with Sean’s father Melvin.

Much later in the documentary, Patterson and Davis mention wild parties that Janice used to have at her house, where they as children were exposed to things (sex and drugs) that underage kids shouldn’t see or experience. Janice, who did not respond to requests to be interviewed for the documentary, remains a prominent figure in Sean’s life. Sean has a younger sister named Keisha, who is never mentioned in the documentary.

Although there have been stories that Sean grew up in poverty, the reality is that he was closer to middle class, since his mother (who worked as a model and a teacher assistant) could afford to send him to Catholic schools for his pre-college education. Sean attended Howard University, where he studied business, but he dropped out in his second year at Howard to pursue a career in the music industry. Ron Lawrence, one of his former Howard classmates who worked with Sean as a producer, is interviewed in the documentary but doesn’t say much beyond how he’s still processing how far Sean has fallen from grace.

The Notorious B.I.G., the rapper also known as Biggie Smalls, was Bad Boy’s first breakout artist. The documentary briefly mentions unproven gossip that Sean could have had something to do with the 1997 unsolved drive-by-shooting murder of the Notorious B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace), who reportedly wanted to leave Bad Boy Records. Former bodyguard Deal hints that he believes this theory to be true. The documentary also repeats longtime speculation that in the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feud the 1990s, Sean might have had something to do with the death of West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur, whose 1996 drive-by-shooting murder remains unsolved.

“Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” jumps back and forth in Sean’s personal timeline history, which makes the documentary’s narrative a little bit messy and confusing to people unfamiliar with his past. The documentary would have been better served to have a timeline that was more chronological. “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” also over-relies on “fade to black” transitions between scenes that give the tone of contrived suspenseful drama that is common in reality show editing.

There’s a significant amount of time spent discussing Sean’s 1991 scandal of nine people (ranging in ages from 17 to 28) dying in a stampede at an AIDS fundraiser basketball game that he promoted at the City College of New York gymnasium. The documentary includes archival footage of this tragedy. Sean was blamed because the event was oversold. He later settled out of court with the families of the dead victims. Two of these family members are interviewed in the documentary: Jason Swain (whose 20-year-old brother Dirk died) says his family received $40,000 in the settlement. Sonny Williams (whose 20-year-old sister Sonya died) says that his family received $50,000 in the settlement.

However, the documentary barely mentions or ignores the 1999 scandals where Sean was accused of directly committing assault. In May 1999, Steve Stoute (who was the manager of rapper Nas at the time) went public about Sean and two associates beating up Stoute in his office because Sean didn’t like how Sean looked as a featured artist in Nas’ “Hate Me Now” music video. Stoute sued Combs, and the case was settled for a reported $500,000 paid to Stoute. Combs pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to one day of anger management. None of that information is in the documentary.

A quick mention is made about the December 1999 violent fight that got Sean into even worse trouble. Sean, his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and Bad Boy Records rapper Shyne were arrested after Sean got into an argument at Club New York in New York City, guns were fired during the argument, and three bystanders were injured. Charges were never filed against Lopez. However, Shyne (birth name: Jamal Barrow) and Sean went on trial in 2001 for various weapons-related crimes for this incident. Sean was acquitted of all the charges, while Shyne was found guilty of eight of the 10 charges and served almost nine years in prison.

The avalanche of sexual abuse allegations against Sean began with a lawsuit filed against him in November 2023 by Cassie Ventura, who was his on-again/off-again girlfriend from 2007 to 2018. Ventura (who went by the one-name stake moniker Cassie) was also signed to Bad Boy Records. Her lawsuit—which accused him of sexual abuse, sex trafficking and other physical abuse—was settled one day after it was filed, but it didn’t stop more lawsuits with similar allegations from pouring in against Sean.

“Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” goes over many of the same details that have already been widely reported about several of these lawsuits. The documentary also includes the March 2016 security video footage from the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles that CNN televised in May 2024. In this leaked footage, which matched an incident described in Ventura’s lawsuit, Sean can be seen kicking and dragging Ventura in a hotel hallway when she tried to leave by elevator.

After this footage was exposed, Sean made a statement in a now-deleted Instagram video, where he claimed “full responsibility” for what he did in that assault video and said that he was “fucked up” and was “at rock bottom” in his life when he attacked Ventura. He also said he went into therapy and rehab, but didn’t go into further details about when and for how long. It’s unknown if he ever made an apology to Ventura, but he said in the video: “I’m not asking for forgiveness.”

Mylan Morales, a makeup artist who worked with Sean and Ventura, is one of the people interviewed in the documentary. Morales says she witnessed seeing Ventura’s assault injuries from a separate incident after Ventura and Sean were alone in a hotel room together, but Morales doesn’t say she actually saw or heard Sean causing the injuries. Morales also admits she was too afraid to do anything about it at the time because she didn’t have proof and thought that she wouldn’t be believed.

Gene Deal, who was Sean’s bodyguard from 1991 to 2005, says he went public years ago about Sean’s violence behind the scenes, but nothing was really done about it until Ventura’s lawsuit opened up the floodgates. Deal says he quit working for Sean not because of the awful things he knew was going on but because Deal didn’t like that Janice Combs was treating Deal like her personal assistant. Not surprisingly, Deal also says that several unnamed people helped commit and/or cover up the alleged crimes. Deal doesn’t let himself off the hook because he says he was one of the enablers who witnessed a lot of things that he could have reported to law enforcement but did not.

A woman, who is interviewed in the shadows and only identified as Ashley, says that she was repeatedly raped by Sean but doesn’t say what year this alleged crime happened. She claims she filed a police report, which the documentary filmmakers say was withheld from them when they requested a copy of the report. Unfortunately, the documentary does not name the police department responsible for allegedly withholding this information.

Another anonymous “in the shadows” interview is with a man identified only as a former Bad Boy employee, who says that Sean sexually harassed him on the job, by showing him gay male porn. Sean allegedly told this man that gay sex is a rite of passage and what men have to do to get ahead in the music industry. The unidentified man (whose voice is disguised in the interview) also hints that he was sexually assaulted (at the very least groped) by Sean, but he didn’t want to go into more details.

Also coming forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Sean is Sara Rivers, one of the former members of Da Band from executive producer Sean Combs’ “Making the Band 2” reality series, which aired from 2002 to 2004 on MTV. In the documentary, Rivers breaks down in tears when she talks about how Sean put his hands on her in inappropriate places. She says it’s the first time she’s revealed this information in an interview. In “Making the Band 2,” Sean notoriously made the band members do outrageous “challenges” to get his approval and to stay on the show, such as walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back to Manhattan (an eight-hour trek by foot) to get him cheesecake.

Rivers claims to have witnessed Sean making verbal threats to members of Da Band in separate incidents. He allegedly said to one member: “You make me so mad, I could eat your flesh.” To another member he said, “I could give a crackhead $20 to smack the shit out of you.” Rivers does not name the members who received these alleged threats.

The lawsuits and criminal charges against Sean have a slew of many disturbing allegations that have been reported elsewhere and don’t need to be repeated in this review. However, the documentary includes interviews with attorneys Ariel Mitchell and Lisa Bloom, who have separate law practices, and have several clients who are plaintiffs in these lawsuits, some of which are detailed in the documentary. Mitchell compares Sean to the demonic Lucifer, while Bloom says Sean is a “monster.”

Also interviewed are journalists Kim Osorio, Jasmine Simpkins and Sharon Carpenter, who was an on-air host from 2013 to 2015 at Revolt, the TV network that Sean founded in 2013. Sean stepped down from Revolt in 2023, after he was accused by more people of sex crimes. In the documentary, these journalists just repeat things that are already common knowledge to people who follow news about these scandals. Mel Love, a former Uptown Records executive, is interviewed but doesn’t have anything new or interesting to add.

One of the most telling parts of the documentary in showing how victims are often blamed is when Parker wonders aloud if Ventura did anything to make Sean angry in that 2016 video where Sean viciously assaulted a helpless Ventura, who did not fight back in the video. An unidentified documentarian not seen on screen then asks Parker if it matters if Ventura did anything to require that assault, and it suddenly dawns on Parker that he’s victim blaming. He lowers his head slightly in shame and admits that Ventura did not deserve the assault, regardless if she argued with Sean or not.

And therein lies much of the point that the documentary makes over and over: Too often, people who rich and famous are automatically exalted as “better” than most people, even when there is evidence that some wealthy celebrities have a history of violence and committing abuse. One of the people interviewed in the documentary is Dr. Carolyn West, an expert in trauma from domestic abuse and from sex trafficking. In one of the documentary’s best statements, she says that even though abusers often come from abusive backgrounds, it shouldn’t excuse their crimes and shouldn’t prevent victims from coming forward to seek justice: “Regardless of what trauma you have, you have to hold people accountable.”

Peacock premiered “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy” on January 14, 2025.

Review: ‘Diddy: Monster’s Fall,’ starring Sean Combs

January 11, 2025

by Carla Hay

Sean Combs in “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” (Photo courtesy of Legacy Distribution)

“Diddy: Monster’s Fall”

Directed by Remone Jones

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” features a predominantly African American group of people (with some white people and Latin people) in archival footage related to disgraced mogul/entertainer Sean Combs.

Culture Clash: At the time that this documentary was made and released, Combs was facing criminal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking and was embroiled in several lawsuits accusing him of various sex crimes, including rape.

Culture Audience: “Monster’s Fall” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about celebrities, but this weak documentary just recycles old information.

Sean Combs in “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” (Photo courtesy of Legacy Distribution)

“Diddy: Monster’s Fall” is nothing but a cheap-looking compilation of archival clips, with no new information. The documentary doesn’t interview anyone directly involved in Sean Combs’ legal problems. It looks like a video made by amateur YouTubers. There are actually better-quality and more informative videos about Combs’ scandals on YouTube that are available for free.

Directed, written and edited by Remone Jones, “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” begins with a montage of news footage about the September 2024 arrest of Sean Combs, a New York City-born business mogul who is most famous for being the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment and being a hip-hop recording artist/producer. Born in 1969, Combs has also been business entrepreneur in fashion, alcoholic drinks, television and other ventures. He has dabbled in being an actor on stage and on screen, including a supporting role as a death-row convict in the 2001 movie “Monster’s Ball.”

Combs has had various nicknames in his career, including Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, Diddy and Love. “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” (which clocks in at a brisk 58 minutes) features basic narration from Liam Lincoln in telling Combs’ story in mostly chronological order. People who watch this documentary will probably know already about his rise in the music industry in the 1990s and his various scandals along the way. Combs’ history of violence has been well-documented over the years.

The documentary includes coverage of Combs’ 1990s arrests include the Club New York gun shooting incident in December 1999, when three people were injured. Combs was found not guilty in a 2001 trial, but his rapper protégé Jamal “Shyne” Barrow served nine years in prison for the shooting incident. Combs’ then-girlfriend was arrested with him on the night of the shooting, but she was never charged with any crimes.

Combs also escaped a prison sentence in May 1999, for assaulting Steven Stoute, who was the manager of rapper Nas. Stoute says that Combs and two associates beat up Stoute in his office because Combs was unhappy with Combs’ featured appearance in Nas’ “Hate Me Now” video. Stoute declined to press crimina; charges against Combs after Combs made an apology to him. However, Stoute sued Combs over this incident, and the matter was settled out of court for a reported $500,000 paid to Stoute. Combs pleaded guilty to harassment and was sentenced to one day of anger management.

The lawsuits and criminal charges that began to pile up against Combs in 2023 are listed, including the November 2023 lawsuit that Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura (who was signed to Combs’ Bad Boy record label) that was settled just one day after the lawsuit was filed. Ventura accused Combs of long-term physical and sexual abuse during their on-again/off-again nine-year relationship, which ended in 2018.

Combs initially denied all the accusations in Ventura’s lawsuit, until May 2024, when CNN released a March 2016 security video that was recorded at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. The video showed Combs kicking and dragging Ventura in a hotel floor hallway after she tried to leave on an elevator. The video matched one of the assaults described in the lawsuit.

In a now-deleted Instagram video posted in May 2024, Combs made a statement about his assault of Ventura, as seen in the hotel security video: “I was fucked up. I mean, I hit rock bottom, but I make no excuses.” Combs said that he took “full responsibility” was “not asking for forgiveness” for what happened in the video. He also claimed he went into therapy and rehab after this incident, although he wasn’t specific about for how long and if he ever made an apology to Ventura. Despite admitting this assault, Combs is denying all other accusations against him. He was denied bail in his criminal cases for racketeering and sex trafficking.

A great deal of “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” is literally narrator Lincoln just reading parts of the lawsuits, which are public records and easily accessible. The featured clips from music videos are the bare-minimum, 30-second fair use clips. This documentary is essentially a video version of a Wikipedia page. And the fact that “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” was released for purchase or rental tells you all you need to know that it’s a complete ripoff.

Legacy Distribution released “Diddy: Monster’s Fall” on Prime Video in January 2025.

Review: ‘Sons of Ecstasy,’ starring Sammy Gravano, Gerard Gravano, Shaun Atwood, Jason Stefaniak, Jim Cope and Karen Gravano

January 10, 2025

by Carla Hay

Gerard Gravano in “Sons of Ecstasy” (Photo courtesy of Max)

“Sons of Ecstasy”

Directed by Elli Hakami and Julian P. Hobbs

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Sons of Ecstasy” features an all-white group of people discussing the crimes of former feuding drug kingpins Gerard Gravano and Shaun Attwood, who were multimillionaire rivals in the Ecstasy drug trade in Phoenix.

Culture Clash: Gerard Gravano (the son of former Gambino family mafia member Sammy “The Bull” Gravano) and Attwood (a British immigrant) had a bitter rivalry that turned violent.

Culture Audience: “Sons of Ecstasy” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about high-level drug dealers who were caught and punished.

Shaun Attwood in “Sons of Ecstasy” (Photo courtesy of Max)

“Sons of Ecstasy” tells a compelling story about the 1990s feud between former drug kingpins who had a fierce rivalry over dealing Ecstasy in the Phoenix area. This documentary doesn’t glorify their crimes and shows how greed comes at a heavy price. It’s also a story of how a son’s self-esteem can be based on blind ambition to be more financially successful than his father’s.

Directed by Elli Hakami and Julian P. Hobbs, “Sons of Ecstasy” is about the feud that erupted between former drug traffickers Gerard Gravano and Shaun Attwood, who are both interviewed for the documentary. In the 1990s, they both had a bitter competition to rule the Ecstasy drug trade in the Phoenix area. Both men both came to the area as “outsiders” and were determined to become multimillionaires from selling Ecstasy, usually at nightclubs and rave parties.

“Sons of Ecstasy” shows from the beginning that Gerard Gravano’s motivation to make a name for himself as a tough crime boss was mainly influenced by his experiences as the son of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the former member of the New York mafia’s Gambino crime family, who testified against his former boss John Gotti in 1991. Sammy is also interviewed in the documentary.

Gerard says although Sammy never told him to become a criminal, Gerard felt pressure to do something with his life to prove he could emerge from Sammy’s shadow with an outlaw image of his own. In the late 1980s, Gerard, his sister Karen and their mother Debra (who became Sammy’s ex-wife) moved from New York City to Phoenix, after the FBI informed the family that the mafia had put a murder hit on Gerard. Sammy relocated to Phoenix later, after he spent several months in the FBI’s witness protection program in Colorado.

Attwood came from a very different background. He was raised in a middle-class family in Liverpool, England. His father was an insurance salesman. His mother was a homemaker. After graduating from college with a business degree, Attwood moved to Phoenix (because his aunt lived there), with the goal of becoming a rich stockbroker. Attwood says he was heavily influenced by the 1987 movie “Wall Street” and the famous line uttered by the movie’s main character Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas): “Greed is good.”

In the documentary, Attwood says although he became a successful stockbroker, he got burned out on the job. He decided to become an Ecstasy dealer after he got hooked on the Ecstasy-fueled rave scene in Phoenix and saw he could make more money by dealing Ecstasy than by being a stockbroker. Attwood had the nickname English Shaun when he was a drug dealer. Attwood (who seems to be the most remorseful out of all the convicted felons who are interviewed in the documentary) also says he became addicted to Ecstasy and other drugs during his drug-dealing years.

Gerard Gravano and Attwood, who were both in their 20s when they became Ecstasy kingpins, each had cohorts who were among the most trusted in their respective inner circles. Attwood says that he had about 200 people working for him when he was raking in millions of dollars a year through the drug trade. Certain people who were closest to Gerard and Attwood were either their most loyal allies or worst enemies.

Gerard’s main partner in crime was Tom Papa, an experienced drug dealer who was originally from New York’s Long Island. Papa was not interviewed for this documentary because the documentary says that Papa can’t be located. (It sounds like he’s probably in witness protection.) Gerard says that Papa was the person who convinced him to become an Ecstasy dealer.

Sammy Gravano also got into trouble for funding Gerard’s drug business, which is something that Sammy still denies. The outcome of Sammy’s legal case is discussed in “Sons of Ecstasy.” In the documentary, Sammy says that he quit a life of crime after getting out of the witness protection program. Sammy also says that he was very angry when he found out that Gerard was a drug dealer. In the documentary, Karen describes her father as a reformed man and a great father who kept his criminal activities and his family life very separate from each other.

Attwood says the two most-trusted people in his inner circle were Jason Stefaniak (nicknamed Schooly) and Peter Mahoney (nicknamed Wild Man). Stefaniak, who is interviewed in the documentary, was Attwood’s most lucrative seller and the person most likely to go on plane flights as a drug trafficker for Attwood. Stefaniak brags that when he went to nightclubs, it was easy for him to make $14,000 to $18,000 a night from selling Ecstasy.

Attwood and Stefaniak both describe their relationship as Atwood being like a “big brother” to “little brother” Stefaniak. Mahoney (who died in 2020, at age 49) was friend that Attwood had known from their childhood in England. Attwood convinced Mahoney to move to Phoenix to be Attwood’s security chief/”enforcer.”

As the feud between Attwood and Gerard Gravano escalated, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency began to pay closer attention to the fact that massive quantities of Ecstasy were being bought and sold in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. It was only a matter of time before avarice and reckless acts of revenge would lead to certain people’s downfalls. Also interviewed in the documentary are United States district attorney Jim Cope and two law enforcement agents who went undercover in Phoenix for Ecstasy drug busts: Matthew Shay and Rose Akre.

“Sons of Ecstasy” is a well-paced recounting of what happened when Gerard decided he wanted to take over Attwood’s dominance of the Ecstasy business in Phoenix. It’s a story filled with not only fierce loyalty but also vicious betrayal. There’s also an added layer about what these crimes can do to families. Ultimately, this documentary serves as a cautionary tale of how short-term greed can bring long-term suffering and damage that need years of recovery.

Max premiered “Sons of Ecstasy” on January 8, 2025.

Review: ‘I Am: Celine Dion,’ starring Celine Dion

January 7, 2025

by Carla Hay

Celine Dion in “I Am: Celine Dion” (Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios)

“I Am: Celine Dion”

Directed by Irene Taylor

Culture Representation: The documentary film “I Am: Celine Dion” (filmed in 2023) features an all-white group of people discussing the life and career of French Canadian superstar singer Celine Dion.

Culture Clash: Dion has personal struggles and uncertainty about her career after she is diagnosed with stiff person syndrome.

Culture Audience: “I Am: Celine Dion” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Dion and people interested in watching documentaries about how celebrities deal with health problems.

Celine Dion in “I Am: Celine Dion” (Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

“I Am: Celine Dion” can be commended for how Celine Dion openly shares what her life was like shortly after being diagnosed with stiff person syndrome. However, this documentary did not need so many “greatest hits” archival clips as interruptions. These archival clips are edited into the movie in ways that seem like distractions and filler to stretch out the length of the film. Without these archival clips, there’s barely enough new footage for a feature-length film.

Directed by Irene Taylor, “I Am: Celine Dion” (filmed in 2023) has a format that constantly switches back and forth between the footage filmed exclusively for the documentary and the archival footage, usually a music video or a live performance that has already been widely seen. Just when things get interesting with the new footage, the movie then abruptly segues to the archival footage. People watching this documentary don’t need these constant archival reminders to show why Dion is famous. The expected hits are featured, including “My Heart Will Go On,” “The Power of Love,” “All by Myself” and “Because You Loved Me.”

The footage that was filmed exclusively for the documentary shows Dion mostly at her home in her native Québec, as she begins her recovery and rehabilitation for stiff person syndrome, a rare autoimmune neurological disorder that causes muscle stiffness, spasms and seizures. “I Am: Celine Dion” notoriously includes Dion having a seizure on camera during a medical appointment. This clip was widely shown before the documentary became available, so anyone who saw this clip before seeing the documentary won’t be as shocked as those who never saw this footage.

Aside from this revealing footage of Dion having a seizure, ” Am: Celine Dion” shows her having other moments of vulnerability. She says of the part of her recovery that is not in the documentary: “It got to a point where I couldn’t walk anymore … A lot of pain. And I can’t use my [singing] voice yet.

Dion also wonders aloud if stiff person syndrome will rob her of her greatest joy as a singer: performing in front of a live audience. She comments, “Music, I miss it a lot. But also: people. I miss them.

Dion adds, Before got SPS, my voice was the conductor of my life. I was okay with that because I was having a great time. When your voice brings you joy, you’re the best of yourself.”

During this period of recovery, the documentary shows that Dion kept a small circle of people around her. Those in her inner circle include her three sons: René-Charles (born in 2001) and fraternal twins Eddy and Nelson (born in 2010), from her marriage to her late husband/manager René Angélil, who died of throat cancer in 2016. Also seen in the documentary are Dion’s co-managers Dave Platel and Denis Savage.

As candid as the documentary is, Dion still seems a little guarded because she’s aware she’s being filmed. In the documentary’s first scene, her twin sons Eddy and Nelson ask her: “What’s your favorite color?” Dion replies: “That’s a hard question to answer.” She is then asked, “If you could be anywhere, where would you be?” Dion answers, “Will you believe me if I tell you that I’ve traveled the world, and I didn’t really see anything?”

“I Am: Celine Dion”—just like many other celebrity documentaries that are sanctioned by the celebrity or celebrity’s estate—presents the celebrity in the way that the celebrity probably wants to be presented. Dion is not depicted as perfect (her sadness and vulnerability are on full display), and she certainly didn’t do this documentary to get pity because of her medical condition. However, it seems a little fake that Dion is never seen getting angry or showing any personality flaws that would make her more relatable as a human being. How she’s dealing with her diagnosis is certainly admirable, but “I Am: Celine Dion” still gives the impression that the entire story isn’t told in this documentary.

Amazon MGM Studios released “I Am: Celine Dion” select U.S. cinemas on June 21, 2024. Prime Video premiered the movie on June 25, 2024.

Review: ‘Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes,’ starring the voices of Kerry Shale and Stephen Bogart

January 1, 2025

by Carla Hay

A 1945 photo of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” (Photo courtesy of Alamy Photos/Freestyle Digital Media)

“Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes”

Directed by Kathryn Ferguson

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” features an all-white group of people (mostly through archival footage) discussing the life and career of legendary actor Humphrey Bogart.

Culture Clash: Humphrey Bogart was one of the biggest movie stars of his generation, but his personal life was plagued by alcohol abuse and troubled marriages that ended in divorce.

Culture Audience: “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Bogart and celebrity documentaries about 20th century movie stars.

A 1936 photo of “The Petrified Forest” co-stars Humphrey Bogart, Leslie Howard and Bette Davis in “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” (Photo courtesy of Alamy Photos/Freestyle Digital Media)

Although the biographical documentary “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” was sanctioned by the family of Humphrey Bogart, the movie doesn’t shy away from his faults and failings. Having narration from an actor portraying Bogart will get mixed reactions. The narration mostly comes from Bogart’s own words about his life. Some viewers will think that the narration is an annoying distraction, other viewers will like the narration’s self-effacing tone, and other viewers will be indifferent.

Directed by Kathryn Ferguson, “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” was written by Ferguson and Eleanor Emptage, a producer of the documentary. “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” consists mostly of archival footage, but there are a few interviews that were done exclusively for this documentary. Canadian actor Kerry Shale is the voice of Bogart for the movie’s narration and does a passable voice imitation.

Bogart was born in New York City on December 25, 1899. He died of esophageal cancer in Los Angeles on January 14, 1957. “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” (which is told mostly in chronological order) begins wth archival news footage of people, many of whom were celebrities, arriving for Bogart’s funeral. Ronald Reagan, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy and David Niven are among the celebrities seen in this footage.

Shale (as Bogart) says in the narration over this funeral footage: “Funny. I never considered myself particularly well-liked. I never really knew before how many friends I did have. Just as you can’t cheat your way through life, you have to be yourself, believe in yourself, play your hunches. I really can’t understand why actors can’t have human frailties like other people, why they can’t make the same mistakes, guess wrong, now and then.”

Of course, the Bogart speaking in this narration is a movie star from an era where film studios tightly controlled the images of actors and actresses. There were no tell-all confessional memoirs from stars at this time. There was no Internet where celebrities and the media could document the daily lives of celebrities, including unflattering information, damaging mistakes or career-changing scandals.

Through interviews and commentaries, “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” repeatedly mentions that Bogart was a series of contradictions. On screen, he had an image of being a “tough guy.” People who knew Bogart say that in real life, he was soft-spoken and almost shy—except when he was drunk (which apparently was often), when he could become mean-spirited and violent.

Ardent fans of Bogart probably won’t learn anything revealing about his life from watching this documentary. However, the movie does a fairly good job of explaining how Bogart’s troubled early life had a tremendous impact on how he was later as a famous actor. Bogart’s first on-screen roles were usually playing low-life criminals, which is in contrast to the privileged childhood that he had, growing up in an affluent household.

His father Belmont DeForest Bogart was a surgeon. Humphrey’s mother Maud was a famous illustrator who earned more money than Belmont at the height of her career. When Humphrey was a bay, his mother’s illustration of him was used in a Mellin’s Food ad. “It kind of gave me a complex,” the voiceover narration says of the unwanted attention he got from the ad. “I was always getting the razz [teasing] from friends.”

According to the documentary, Humphrey’s parents had a troubled marriage and frequently argued. Maud was also addicted to drugs and an aloof mother. The narration says of Maud: “She was totally incapable of showing affection.” It probably explains that Humphrey was reluctant to have kids of his own until his fourth and last wife—actress Lauren Bacall—changed his mind.

From an early age, Humphrey was a rebel. His father expected Humphrey to be a surgeon. Humphrey wanted to be an actor. Before his acting career began, Humphrey was expelled from school and later joined the U.S. Navy during World War I. “The war didn’t touch me mentally,” the narration says.

After getting out of the military, Humphrey struggled for years in the New York theater scene, where he usually had small supporting roles. His first wife Helen Menken, a theater actress whom he was married to from 1926 to 1927, was older and more famous than he was at the time. The documentary implies that he probably married her to help boost his career.

After getting divorced from Menken, he was married to actress Mary Philips from 1928 to 1937, during the years when Humphrey started doing roles in movies and relocated to Los Angeles. That marriage also ended in divorce, reportedly because time spent apart due to their work schedules. It was during this marriage that Humphrey got his breakthrough movie role in 1936’s “The Petrified Forest” because co-star Leslie Howard advocated for Humphrey to get this role.

By all accounts, Humphrey’s third marriage to actress Mayo Methot (they were married from 1938 to 1945) was his most volatile marriage, filled with breakups and makeups, until the marriage ended in divorce. Methot is described in the documentary as outspoken, bisexual and a great inspiration for Humphrey as an actor. But their relationship was plagued with the spouses’ alcohol addictions and violent physical abuse of each other. Methot’s mental health deteriorated and at one point, she was in a psychiatric facility.

It was during his marriage to Methot that Humphrey began to transition from roles as mostly criminals to heroic or romantic leading roles. He played private detective Sam Spade in 1941’s “The Maltese Falcon.” This transition included his most famous movie: 1942’s “Casablanca” (directed by Michael Curtiz), in which Humphrey starred as nightclub owner Rick Blaine, with Ingrid Bergman as Rick’s on-again/off-again lover Ilsa Lund. Even if people have never seen “Casablanca,” the movie’s most famous line is familiar to most people who know about pop culture: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

Humphrey’s hard-drinking ways didn’t slow down during his marriage to Bacall, who says in archival interviews that she was able to keep up with his partying. The romance of the couple, who were affectonately known as Bogey and Bacall, began when they met while filming the 1944 romantic war movie “To Have and Have Not,” directed by Howard Hawks. At the time, Humphrey was 44, and Bacall was 19.

Hawks reportedly said to Humphrey about Bacall when the movie was being filmed: “Every scene we play, she’s going to leave you with egg on your face and walk out on you.” Humphreys supposedly responded: “She’s smarter than me.” Despite the big age gap between Bogey and Bacall, the couple had compatible interests, and she reportedly gave him a new lease on life after he had three failed marriages.

Bogey and Bacall had two children together: Stephen (born in 1949) and Leslie (born in 1952). In the narration, Humphrey says fatherhood was difficult for him, and it took him a while to learn how to be an attentive father. Stephen is one of the executive producers of “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” and provides commentary for the documentary but does not do the interviews on camera. Stephen says that when he was a child, he was always aware of his parents’ fame. Stephen says of his father: “It took him over 40 years to find his feet in his film career.”

Humprey’s other big movie successes included portraying detective Philip Marlowe in 1946’s “The Big Sleep”. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role as cranky steamboat captain Charlie Allnut in 1951’s “The African Queen,” directed by John Huston and co-starring Katharine Hepburn. “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” includes archival footage of Hepburn commenting on what it was like to work with Humphrey in “The African Queen.” “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” has details about Humphrey’s battles with Jack Warner, co-founder of Warner Bros. Pictures, because Humphrey didn’t like the control that the studio liked to have over performers’ lives.

People who appear on camera for documentary interviews include biographer Eric Lax, artist Sharon Dwyer Buzard, historian Laura Horak, film critic Pamela Hutchinson and historian Thomas Doherty. Other commentators, who say they were close to Humphrey and are now deceased, are heard in audio clips, although the documentary doesn’t identify when these interviews took place. These interviewees include actor/friend Dan Seymour, screenwriter/friend Peter Viertel, friend Patrick O’Moore, family friends Bob Schifer and Florence Schiffer.

“Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” falls short of giving a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes about Humphrey’s most famous movies, possibly because those topics have already been thoroughly covered in several books about him. What’s most poignant about “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” are the descriptions of the last year of his life, when he was in ill health and could barely move. “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” is a slickly edited documentary about this complicated actor. However, the movie goes beyond the glitz and glamour to tell his story in a way that might not be complete but is still revealing enough about what he was like off-camera.

Freestyle Digital Media released “Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes” on November 15, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on December 10, 2024.

Review: ‘Chasing Chasing Amy,’ starring Sav Rodgers, Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, Riley Rodgers, Guinevere Turner and Scott Mosier

December 31, 2024

by Carla Hay

Joey Lauren Adams, Sav Rodgers and Kevin Smith in “Chasing Chasing Amy” (Photo courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment)

“Chasing Chasing Amy”

Directed by Sav Rodgers

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Chasing Chasing Amy” (filmed from 2018 to 2022) features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) discussing the culture and personal impact of the 1997 film “Chasing Chasing Amy” (written and directed by Kevin Smith), a comedy/drama about a heterosexual man who falls in love with a sexually fluid/queer woman.

Culture Clash: “Chasing Chasing Amy” director Sav Rodgers, a “Chasing Amy” superfan went through his own sexual identity journey while making the documentary when he got engaged to a queer cisgender woman and when he came out as a transgender man.

Culture Audience: “Chasing Chasing Amy” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “Chasing Amy,” filmmaker Kevin Smith and documentaries about the intersections between pop culture and LGBTQ personal stories.

Riley Rodgers and Sav Rodgers in “Chasing Chasing Amy” (Photo courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment)

“Chasing Chasing Amy” is more than just a fan tribute for the 1997 comedy/drama “Chasing Amy.” This charming and insightful documentary has layers of meaningful perspectives of LGBTQ on-screen representation and off-screen dynamics in love and filmmaking. “Chasing Chasing Amy” might take some viewers by surprise by how deeply personal some people are in telling their stories in this documentary.

Directed by Sav Rodgers, “Chasing Chasing Amy” is his feature-film directorial debut. “Chasing Chasing Amy” had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and subsequently screened at several other film festivals in 2023, including the Frameline Festival and BFI London Film Festival. “Chasing Chasing Amy” was filmed from 2018 to 2022 in various parts of the United States. Rodgers appears in “Chasing Chasing Amy” and is the movie’s narrator.

“Chasing Chasing Amy” begins by Rodgers explaining that when he was a child growing up in Kansas, he became obsessed with watching “Chasing Amy,” written and directed by Kevin Smith. Rodgers says that at one point, he was watching “Chasing Amy” every day including a period of time when he watched the movie very day for a month. Rodgers was bullied at school for being queer. He says “Chasing Amy” helped him stay alive during dark periods of his life when he was feeling suicidal.

In “Chasing Amy,” a comic book artist named Holden McNeil (played by Ben Affleck) meets aspiring writer Alyssa Jones (played by Joey Lauren Adams), and they begin dating each other and fall in love. What makes their relationship complicated is that at the time Holden and Alyssa met, she identified as a lesbian. In her relationship with Holden, Alyssa isn’t quite so sure she wants to continue to identify as a lesbian, but she knows she’s not heterosexual either. Adams was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in “Chasing Amy.”

Nowadays, Alyssa would probably identify as queer, bisexual or sexually fluid. But in 1997, it was rare to for a mainstream movie to have a main character who was experiencing what Alyssa was feeling. Rodgers says that he connected immensely with “Chasing Amy” because it was the first movie he saw at the time where he saw a character who was neither gay nor straight but defining sexuality on their own terms. It was a something that Rodgers could relate to but he couldn’t express himself about it at the time.

In 2019, Rodgers gave a TED Talk about how “Chasing Chasing Amy” changed his life for the better and helped him come out of the closet as a queer person. Footage from this TED Talk is in the documentary. By this time, Rodgers had already decided to make a documentary about his love of “Chasing Amy.” After the TED Talk, “Chasing Amy” director Smith reached out to Rodgers on social media and arranged for Rodgers to meet and interview Smith at Smith’s Los Angeles home. It was a turning point for Rodgers and this documentary, as Smith eventually became a mentor of sorts to Rodgers.

“Chasing Amy” is a movie where art imitated life in more ways than one. Smith (who is described by colleagues in the documentary as a constant jokester and highly creative) and Adams (who is described by colleagues in the documentary as intelligent and grounded) dated each other from 1995 to 1997. Smith and Adams have both said in many interviews that the characters of Holden and Alyssa were partially based on Smith and Adams, except that Adams did not identify as a lesbian in real life. Adams is one of the people interviewed in “Chasing Chasing Amy,” which was released in April 1997, about six months before she and Smith broke up.

What many people might not know, but which is included in the “Chasing Chasing Amy” documentary, is that the queer aspect of Alyssa and Holden’s romance was based on a real-life relationship that “Chasing Amy” producer Scott Mosier had circa 1994 with filmmaker/actress Guinevere Turner, who identifies as a lesbian. Mosier and Turner, who both had small roles in “Chasing Amy,” are interviewed separately in “Chasing Chasing Amy.” Mosier and Turner both describe their relationship at the time as a “romantic friendship.” Smith decided to write “Chasing Amy” based on that relationship, but he made the Alyssa character have a personality that was a lot like Adams’ real personality.

“Chasing Chasing Amy” admirably acknowledges that although the low-budget independent film “Chasing Amy” was a critically acclaimed hit (“Chasing Amy” had a $250,000 production budget and $12 million in ticket sales), some people consider it problematic that a movie about an unconventional romance with a queer woman was written by a heterosexual man and told from a very hetereosexual male perspective. In “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Smith says that he understands how people have that opinion, but he can’t change who he is and how he made the movie.

The documentary also points out that the issue isn’t just about “cultural appropriation.” It’s also about the hierarchy in the film industry where cisgender men still get the best opportunities as filmmakers, compared to people who aren’t cisgender men. Turner comments that when she and Smith were at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, they were peers starring in separate buzzworthy movies filmed in black and white: Turner was at Sundance for her lesbian comedy/drama “Go Fish” (a movie she co-wrote with “Go Fish” director Rose Troche), while Smith was at Sundance for his feature-film debut “Clerks,” a comedy/drama written by Smith. Looking back at what happened after that fateful 1994 Sundance Film Festival, Turner says bluntly: “What emerged was Kevin got an empire, and we were just some dykes.”

“Chasing Chasing Amy” also peels back the curtain in how making “Chasing Amy” was a very different experience for Smith than it was from Adams. In “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Adams and Smith are interviewed separately and together. The interviews that Smith and Adams do together are jovial, but they get more somber in their separate interviews. Their experiences are reflections of larger issues of gender and power dynamics in filmmaking.

In his interviews for “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Smith seems to be basking in the praise that he gets from Rodgers at how “Chasing Amy” changed Rodgers’ life. However, Smith says he now has mixed feelings about “Chasing Chasing Amy” being distributed by Miramax, the company co-founded by Harvey Weinstein, who later became a disgraced mogul/convicted rapist in the late 2010s. Smith notes in the interview that the Miramax deal for “Chasing Amy” started at the 1997 Sundance Festival, where actress Rose McGowan says Weinstein raped her. Smith says he was “naïve” and the time didn’t know at the time about Weinstein’s criminal acts behind the scenes.

In her separate interview in “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Adams is visibly uncomfortable and gets emotionally tearful a few times. Adams makes it clear that she’s grateful for the opportunity of making “Chasing Amy” and says she’s happy that the movie helped save Rodgers life. However, making the movie brings up bittersweet memories of her that are still painful. Smith says that Adams was his “muse” at the time, but she remembers their relationship falling apart over similar issues that plagued “Chasing Amy” characters Alyssa and Holden: He was insecure that she was more sexually experienced than he was. He also constantly questioned if she loved him less than he loved her.

Adams also says that her filmmaking experiences as an actress who was forced to have meetings with “old men” and getting rejected for roles is different from Smith’s experiences where he can get a laugh out of these types of meetings. Adams doesn’t come right out and say it, but it’s obvious that what she means to say that when a man like Smith goes into these types of meetings with predatory people like Weinstein, Smith never had to worry about possibly being sexually harassed or worse. Adams says about the “Chasing Amy” filmmaking experience, “Kevin’s truth is not my truth. It wasn’t a cathartic thing [for me] for me as it was for Kevin.” Adams adds, “I was dating this guy [Smith] who was making me feel bad about myself.”

“Chasing Chasing Amy” also has an “art imitating life” storyline with Rodgers and his love partner Riley, who have been a couple since they were in their late teens, when they met online through Tumblr. The documentary was filmed during the evolution of their romance— from long-distance dating to getting engaged to getting married—all before, during and after Sav came out as a transgender man and later went through his hormonal transition. (The couple’s marriage proposal and wedding are shown in the movie.)

Riley Rodgers, who describes their relationship as being “soul mates,” is interviewed in the documentary and asks Sav some candid questions at the end of the film. Riley mentions that—just like “Chasing Amy” character Alyssa—she identified as a lesbian until she found out that she was in love with a man. It’s briefly mentioned that Sav and Riley’s parents are supportive of their relationship. Sav’s mother Natalie Giannakis is seen toward the end of the film.

Other people interviewed in the documentary are “Chasing Amy” casting director Shana Lory, Outfest executive director Christopher Ractser, writer/lesbian culture critic Trish Bendis, film critic Teo Bugbee, pop culture writer/editor Princess Weekes, “Chasing Amy” associate producer Bob Hawk, filmmaker Andrew Ahn, AFI Festival senior programmer Eric Moore, Film Threat founder Chris Gore, filmmaker Kevin Willmott, “90s Bitch” author Allison Yarrow, writer/filmmaker Carlen May-Mann, filmmaker Dana St. Anand, University of Kansas bisexuality studies professor Dr. Sarah Jen, and “Chasing Amy” co-star Jason Lee. Rodgers also visits some of the New Jersey locations associated with Smith, such as Jack’s Music Shoppe (where Rodgers interviews manager Tim Cronin) and Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, where Rodgers interviews manager Mike Zapcic.

“Chasing Chasing Amy” tends to go off on little tangents when talking about other movies or when Sav geeks out about seeing “Chasing Amy” memorabilia, but the film mostly stays on course. The documentary has a fairly good balance between telling commentaries about “Chasing Amy” and telling Sav’s personal story about what was going on in his own life. In its purest form, “Chasing Chasing Amy”—just like “Chasing Amy”—is a celebration about finding true love wherever you happen to find it and not necessarily being restricted by gender labels.

Level 33 Entertainment released “Chasing Chasing Amy” in select U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on December 17, 2024.

Review: ‘Avicii — I’m Tim,’ starring Klas Bergling, Anki Lidén, Ash Pournouri, Flip Akeson, David Guetta, Per Sundin and Aloe Blacc

December 30, 2024

by Carla Hay

A 2018 photo of Tim Bergling, also known as Avicii, in Cape Town, South Africa, in “Avicii — I’m Tim” (Photo courtesy of Candamo Film/Avicii Music AB/Netflix)

“Avicii — I’m Tim”

Directed by Henrik S. Burman

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Avicii — I’m Tim” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans and Asian people) who are friends, colleagues or family members talking about life and career of Avicii, the Swedish electronic dance music (EDM) artist whose real name was Tim Bergling, died by suicide (cutting himself with glass) in 2018, at the age of 28.

Culture Clash: Avicii was one of the top EDM artists in the world, but he struggled in with mental health and addiction issues at the height of his fame.

Culture Audience: “Avicii — I’m Tim” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Avicii and 2010s EDM/pop music.

Tim Bergling, also known as Avicii, in “Avicii — I’m Tim” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Avicii — I’m Tim” is a bittersweet documentary about this talented artist but it omits a lot of details about his life, even with rare archival interviews. It’s ultimately a cautionary tale about how fame and fortune cannot erase mental health struggles. Through archival recordings, Avicii (whose real name was Tim Bergling) is the narrator of the documentary, which gives the movie a haunting quality but serves as a vital voice for an overall conventionally made but effective biography film.

Directed by Henrik S. Burman, “Avicii — I’m Tim” had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Netflix is releasing the documentary on the same day (December 31, 2024) as the Avicii concert film “Avicii — My Last Show,” which was filmed in 2018 at Ibiza’s Ushuaïa. “Avicii — I’m Tim” is told in chronological order and has the expected mix of archival footage mixed with interviews that were done exclusively for the movie.

Avicii (pronounced ah-vee-chee)/Tim Bergling was born on September 8, 1989, in Stockholm, Sweden. As he says in previous interviews, he had a very sheltered childhood, which was centered on just a five-block radius in his Stockholm neighborhood. He was the son of Klas Bergling (a manager of an office supply business) and actress Anki Lidén. Avicii’s mother and father provide some of the commentary in the documentary. Avicii’s three siblings—David Bergling, Linda Sterner and Anton Körberg—are not interviewed in the movie. In 2019, Avicii’s family established the Tim Bergling Foundation, to help with suicide prevention and people struggling with mental health issues.

“Avicii — I’m Tim” begins with a montage of Avicii’s career highlights. He can be heard saying in a voiceover: “I’ve always wanted to make timeless music. I feel like I’m filled with music. It’s my life’s biggest passion.” As a child, he says he was a class clown to avoid getting bullied. He also says he became nicer to people after a teacher told him that he had a reputation for being a snitch.

Tim began making music by remixing songs when he was 8 years old. He had diverse tastes in music, but eventually was most attracted to electronic dance music (EDM) because the technology gave him more freedom to experiment on his own. However, even before he became famous, Tim/Avicii knew he needed to find collaborators because he had no aspirations to be a singer.

In his teenage years, one of his earliest music collaborators was his best friend at the time: Flip “Philgood” Akeson, one of the people interviewed in the documentary. Akeson says that teenage Tim was “shy” and “very anxious. We were polar opposites.” Akeson adds, “He was a geek, to be honest.” Bergling chose the stage name Avicii (respelling of Avīci), which means “the lowest level of Buddhist hell.” Akeson says that he and Avicii drifted apart as Akeson went into a self-described “downward spiral” of drug addiction.

It was during these formative years that Tim developed his “night owl” lifestyle because less people bothered him at night. Tim soon caught the attention of Arash “Ash” Pournouri, who became Tim’s manager and is one of the people interviewed in the documentary. By all accounts, Pournouri becoming Tim’s manager was the turning point for Tim, who was too introverted to be a self-promoter. Pournouri’s unshakeable ambition and confidence to make Avicii a rich and famous artist, combined with Avicii’s prodigious talent, proved to be an unbeatable combination.

The rest of “Avicii — I’m Tim” chronicles Avicii’s rapid rise from EDM star to mainstream celebrity who could sell out arenas and festivals as a headliner DJ/artist. (His best-known hits are 2011’s “Levels” and 2013’s “Wake Me Up.”) He also became an in-demand producer and remixer with a reputation of not being afraid to experiment musically. But with success came enormous pressure to work as much as possible and continue making several hits.

Akeson says that when he knew Avicii, Avicii was very much against drugs, even marijuana. Toward the end of his life, Avicii had gone public about being in rehab for alcohol addiction and pills. Avicii’s anxiety also got worse in dealing with the demands of fame. As he says in an archival interview: “I was a lot happier before I was famous than after I was famous.” On April 20, 2018, Avicii committed suicide (cutting himself with glass) in Muscat, Oman, while he was on vacation.

Although “Avicii — I’m Tim” has a lot of talk about Avicii’s personal struggles and his career achievements, there’s not enough information in the documentary about what was really done behind the scenes to get him the help that he needed. Pournouri (who parted ways with Avicii in 2016) makes vague comments about people trying to do the best they can to help Avicii. Jesse Waits (a Las Vegas nightclub entrepreneur) says of Avicii: “He was very fragile and insecure. He was like a little brother to me.”

The movie, without explanation, also never talks about Avicii’s love life or how he dealt with fans/hangers-on who wanted to date him. Someone in Acivii’s position obviously gets this type of attention. (Waits tells a brief story of how he met Avicii when Avicii and two women used Waits’ home as an overnight crash pad.) But the documentary refuses to even mention any former lovers he had who might have known about his personal challenges and who possibly tried to help him. Did Avicii ever fall in love? That’s a question the documentary won’t answer.

Most of the people interviewed in “Avicii — I’m Tim” are people who knew Avicii because they had a business relationship with him. They include Per Sundin, CEO of Universal Music Nordic Region; singer Aloe Blacc; DJ/artist David Guetta; Neil Jacobson, A&R executive at Interscope Records; Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay; country singer Dan Tyminski; music producer songwriter Nile Rodgers; Sony Music Publishing executive Johnny Tennander; songwriter/producer Carl Falk; musician/songwriter Mike Eizinger; music journalist Katie Bain; musician Salem Al Fakir; and singer/songwriter Joe Janiak.

In 2016, Avicii announced that he was taking a hiatus from touring because he was exhausted and wanted to work on his mental health. When people experience this type of burnout, they often feel like they are being treated like workhorse robots in their life. By refusing to show a full picture of who was in Avicii’s support system at the lowest points in his life, “Avicii — I’m Tim” sidelines some of his humanity. But with his voice as the narration, some of that humanity is retained instead of being drowned out by the documentary’s talking heads who profited from knowing Avicii in some way.

Netflix will premiere “Avicii — I’m Tim” on December 31, 2024.

Review: ‘Music by John Williams,’ starring John Williams, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Chris Columbus

December 29, 2024

by Carla Hay

John Williams in “Music by John Williams” (Photo by Travers Jacobs/Lucasfilm/Disney+)

“Music by John Williams”

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau

Culture Representation: Filmed in 2023, mostly in the United States, the documentary film “Music by John Williams” features award-winning music composer John Willams and a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) who are his friends, colleagues or family members talking about Williams’ life and career.

Culture Clash: Williams started off as a jazz musician and classical music orchestra player but transitioned into become the most famous and most-awarded movie composer of all time.

Culture Audience: “Music by John Williams” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Williams and the movies he composed music for, including “Star Wars,” “E.T.,” the “Indiana Jones” films, and the first three “Harry Potter” movies.

John Williams in “Music by John Williams” (Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney+)

The tribute documentary “Music by John Williams” gives an admirable career retrospective of the world’s most famous movie composer. John Williams and his colleague friends provide most of the commentary in a formulaic but educational and delightful film. Even the most ardent fans of Williams will see or learn something new from seeing this well-researched documentary. “Music by John Williams” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest.

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, “Music by John Williams” is the type of documentary that would be hard get wrong, considering the subject matter and the participation of all the immensely talented people (including Williams) in this film. Born in New York City in 1932, Williams has an extraordinary body of work that includes composing the iconic scores for numerous high-profile films, including “Star Wars” movies, the “Indiana Jones” movies, 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” 1982’s “E.T. the Extraterrestrial,” 1993’s “Schindler’s List,” 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan” and the first three “Harry Potter” movies.

Williams has won every major award for film music composing (including several Oscars and Grammys) and has earned the description of being a “legendary” composer. “Music by John Williams” has the expected descriptions of Williams’ most famous movie scores with clips from these films and some anecdotal stories. As such, “Music by John Williams” is very much a nostalgia documentary, but it’s also an inspirational story of someone who refuses to follow the conventions that most people follow when it comes to aging and retirement.

“Music by John Williams” tells Williams’ story in chronological order and includes personal photos of Williams in his youth. Williams is candid about his experiences but mostly talks about his career, his compositions and the fondness he has for his colleague friends. He came from a family of musicians and creative people: His father Johnny was a drummer/percussionist, his mother Esther was a dancer, and his younger brothers Jerry and Don and older sister Joan also had musical talent and became musicians. Williams’ three children—daughter Jenny, son Mark and son Joe—also became musicians. (For the purposes of this review, John Williams will be referred to as Williams.)

Williams describes having a happy childhood, which is when he taught himself a lot of what he knows about music through constant practicing. By the time he was in high school, he was writing music for the school’s orchestra. Williams describes this accomplishment in such a modest way, it’s almost easy to forget that most high schoolers wouldn’t be able and wouldn’t be asked to write music for their school orchestra.

In his late teens and 20s, Williams studied music while he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, Juilliard, and the University of Rochester. For a brief time, he was in the U.S. Air Force. When he relocated permanently to Los Angeles, Williams became a session musician for many movies and TV shows from the mid-1950s onward. He worked with mentors such as Harry Mancini and André Previn. Some of Williams’ film credits during this time included 1956’s Carousel, 1959’s “Peter Gunn” and 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Williams also became known as a jazz musician. And it wasn’t long before he was composing and conducting his own film and TV scores. Some his TV credits in the 1960s included “Gilligan’s Island” and “Lost in Space.” His first movie score as a composer was the 1958 forgettable flop “Daddy-O.” It’s an example of how Williams didn’t let any early career failures deter him.

Because so much of Williams’ best-known music is in movies directed and/or produced by Steven Spielberg, it should come as no surprise that Spielberg is one of the producers of “Music by John Williams” and is one of the enthusiastic commentators in the documentary. As Williams says in the documentary, the “luckiest day” of his life was meeting Spielberg, who has worked with Williams for all of the feature films directed by Spielberg so far. In the documentary, Spielberg gushes about Williams’ music: “It’s the purest form of art I’ve experienced from any human being.”

Other filmmakers who are interviewed for the documentary are “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, Kathleen Kennedy, Chris Columbus, Lawrence Kasdan, James Mangold and Frank Marshall. Musicians who pay homage to Williams in this documentary include Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay), Branford Marsalis, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Thomas Hooten and Master Sergeant Karen Johnson of the U.S. Marines Chamber Orchestra. Other interviewees include actress Kate Capshaw, actor Ke Huy Quan and journalists Alex Ross, Elvis Mitchell and Javier Hernandez. Williams’ daughter Jenny and her singer/musician son Ethan Gruska are also interviewed.

The commentators for the documentary have nothing but praise for Williams as an artist and as a person. Spielberg says his first impression of Williams is who Williams remained for all of these years: “He was an elegant man—always has been—but very warm.” Williams gets absolutely no criticism in this movie, which makes him look almost too good to be true.

However, observant viewers will notice that if there’s one major flaw that Williams seems to have is that he’s a workaholic who has often put his career above his personal life. This not-very-surprising revelation comes directly from Williams. He describes how although he was a happily married father during his marriage to actress/singer Barbara Ruick (his first wife, whom he married in 1956), when their three kinds were young, he deliberately spent more time at the music studios of 20th Century Fox than he did at home because being around his kids at home was too much of a noisy distraction for him.

Williams’ daughter Jenny is the only one of his children who is interviewed in the documentary. She doesn’t mention how her father’s absences affected her childhood but she does say that she had to become a mother figure for her younger brothers after their mother tragically died at age 41 of an aneurysm in 1974. Williams says in the documentary that her sudden death is still hard for him to talk about, and he admits he had problems handling being a widowed father of teenagers. Williams and photographer Samantha Winslow (who is not interviewed in the documentary) got married in 1980, and he briefly mentions their happy marriage in the documentary.

One of the most poignant parts of the documentary is when Williams says that he believes that his music improved during this widower part of his life because he felt that Ruick (in spirit) was helping him be a better composer. The phenomenal success of the 1977 “Star Wars” score soundtrack catapulted Williams to a new level of fame. He has been performing at the Hollywood Bowl every year since 1978 and has been a Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor at Tanglewood Music Center every year since 1980, except for 2024, when he could not attend for an undisclosed health reason. As for his prolific career as a composer and conductor, Williams says that he has no intention of retiring.

“Music by John Williams” has scenes (exclusively filmed for this documentary) of Spielberg and Williams happily reminiscing about their collaborations. Spielberg repeats a well-known story about how he was skeptical at first when he heard the shark theme for “Jaws” because Williams had first played it on a piano, and Spielberg didn’t think it sounded menacing enough. However, Spielberg was convinced nce he hear the entire musical sequence in orchestra form.

Speaking of orchestras, Williams is one of the few major film composers who still records entirely with an orchestra and writes out his music by hand. He admits that this way of writing and recording film music is “dying,” as more film composers turn to digital technology. Williams doesn’t seem snobbish about it, but he does express some concern that some of the art form might be lost with new generations of film composers relying only on digital technology to make and record music.

At 105 minutes, “Music by John Williams” skillfully packs in Williams’ entire robust career so far in a well-edited compilation of archival footage and exclusive new interviews. There are very few surprises, except for Williams’ confession that he rarely watches movies and has never been that interested in being a moviegoer. What isn’t surprising is Williams saying that music will always be his biggest passion. Whether or not you’re the type of person to buy classical music scores, “Music by John Williams” makes his passion for music very infectious in the best ways possible.

Disney+ released “Music by John Williams” in select U.S. cinemas and on Disney+ on November 1, 2024.

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