The life and times and work of maverick low budget movie director Robert Downey Sr would have been interesting without having to be so bound to his far more famous son, actor Robert Downey Jr., hence the title SR because this is supposedly all about dad instead of son...
But there's just not enough of the titular auteur and too much of the superstar offspring playing with his kids (Sr's grandkids) and saying Jesus Christ or Jesus H Christ in every way possible... it's like playing Scrabble with Billy Graham...
It's nice that Jr wanted to showcase his cult movie-making dad for his own more mainstream Marvel fans... a kind of, "while I am a Hollywood kid, I was a COOL Hollywood kid..."
Yet you really don't get to know either Downey as they're both so breezy, offbeat, offhand and affably smug to showcase anything inside them to make this kind of anti-documentary (by American Movie director Chris Smith) really work...
The bottom-line is, SR needed a more sturdy and legit documentary-style experience into his own merits beyond playtime with famous son, and the way they mishmash the two styles... director bio and famous relatives hanging out... doesn't always work -- at least not like it should...
Because instead of celebrating SR as a filmmaker, it seems the only really effective thing he ever did was... to have a baby named JR.
But there's just not enough of the titular auteur and too much of the superstar offspring playing with his kids (Sr's grandkids) and saying Jesus Christ or Jesus H Christ in every way possible... it's like playing Scrabble with Billy Graham...
It's nice that Jr wanted to showcase his cult movie-making dad for his own more mainstream Marvel fans... a kind of, "while I am a Hollywood kid, I was a COOL Hollywood kid..."
Yet you really don't get to know either Downey as they're both so breezy, offbeat, offhand and affably smug to showcase anything inside them to make this kind of anti-documentary (by American Movie director Chris Smith) really work...
The bottom-line is, SR needed a more sturdy and legit documentary-style experience into his own merits beyond playtime with famous son, and the way they mishmash the two styles... director bio and famous relatives hanging out... doesn't always work -- at least not like it should...
Because instead of celebrating SR as a filmmaker, it seems the only really effective thing he ever did was... to have a baby named JR.