Synopsis
The story of Leon Vitali, who surrendered his promising acting career to become Stanley Kubrick's devoted right-hand man.
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Cast
- Leon VitaliSelf
- Stanley KubrickSelf (archive footage)
- Ryan O'NealSelf
- Danny LloydSelf
- Matthew ModineSelf
- R. Lee ErmeySelf
- Stellan SkarsgårdSelf
- Marie RichardsonSelf
- Tim ColceriSelf
- Julian SeniorSelf
- 83
The Playlist
While Vitali is frank about the nature of his demanding and subservient relationship to the man, his warmhearted, dazzled, Everest-high respect for Kubrick’s talent remains undimmed even now. It is truly inspiring and touching just how little bitterness Vitali has in him, and it stems from his having no regrets over a life dedicated to something he believes in with utterly selfless purity. - 80
The Guardian
What shines through most here is the pure sense of pride felt by Vitali, in the trust Kubrick placed in him, and in his part in creating some of the last century’s most monumental pieces of cinema. - 80
Variety
Filmworker is a brisk, compelling movie that’s pure candy for Kubrick buffs, yet there are oddities about it. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
The film honors the hard-working, often unacknowledged craftsmen in the film industry and stirs provocative questions about the fine line between legitimate devotion to an artist and dangerous hero worship. - 75
The A.V. Club
Matthew Modine — who wrote about Vitali repeatedly in his published diaries of the hellish production of "Full Metal Jacket" and is also interviewed in Filmworker — echoes what seems to be a common sentiment about Vitali: that the guy is a friendly mystery, either a glutton for punishment or a saint. - 70
The New York Times
The material about Kubrick’s process is finally more interesting than the discussions about his temperament. - 70
Village Voice
Perhaps if Kubrick himself wasn’t obsessed, if his films weren’t so thoroughly overwhelming in real life, then they wouldn’t have exploded in our minds the way they did. Filmworker is both a cautionary tale and a tribute to this kind of compulsion. - 67
IndieWire
[A] suitably workmanlike documentary.