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Documentary

Val

- The life you live is the story you tell.

For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.

Release Date : 2021-07-23

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : A24Boardwalk PicturesCartel FilmsIAC FilmsValArt LtdHelMel StudiosTwainMania

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Val Kilmer

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Val Kilmer

Gender : Male

Jack Kilmer

Character Name : Self / Narrator

Original Name : Jack Kilmer

Gender : Male

Mercedes Kilmer

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Mercedes Kilmer

Gender : Female

Joanne Whalley

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Joanne Whalley

Gender : Female

Kevin Bacon

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Kevin Bacon

Gender : Male

Marlon Brando

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Marlon Brando

Gender : Male

David Thewlis

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : David Thewlis

Gender : Male

Kurt Russell

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Kurt Russell

Gender : Male

Kelly McGillis

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Kelly McGillis

Gender : Female

Anthony Edwards

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Anthony Edwards

Gender : Male

Oliver Stone

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Oliver Stone

Gender : Male

Mira Sorvino

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Mira Sorvino

Gender : Female

Madeleine Stowe

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Madeleine Stowe

Gender : Female

Fairuza Balk

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Fairuza Balk

Gender : Female

Cher

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Cher

Gender : Female

John Frankenheimer

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : John Frankenheimer

Gender : Male

Rick Rossovich

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Rick Rossovich

Gender : Male

Tony Scott

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Tony Scott

Gender : Male

Adam West

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Adam West

Gender : Male

Burt Ward

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Burt Ward

Gender : Male

Lucy Gutteridge

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Lucy Gutteridge

Gender : Female

James Tolkan

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : James Tolkan

Gender : Male

Tom Sizemore

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Tom Sizemore

Gender : Male

Barry Tubb

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Barry Tubb

Gender : Male

Tim Robbins

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Tim Robbins

Gender : Male

Oprah Winfrey

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Oprah Winfrey

Gender : Female

Jay Leno

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Jay Leno

Gender : Male

Jimmy Fallon

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Jimmy Fallon

Gender : Male

Joel Schumacher

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Joel Schumacher

Gender : Male

Sean Penn

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Sean Penn

Gender : Male

Jim Morrison

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Jim Morrison

Gender : Male

Peter Kass

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Peter Kass

Gender : Male

Tom Stratton

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Tom Stratton

Gender : Male

Reviews

tmdb28039023

@tmdb28039023

2022-09-03

The line between fiction and reality is seldom as blurry as when it comes to actor Val Kilmer who, as clichéd as it sounds, is a true chameleon. As consumptive gunslinger Doc Holliday in Tombstone, Kilmer looks for all the world like a man who’s running late for his own funeral. And on The Doors, "He looks so uncannily like Jim Morrison that we feel like this isn't a case of casting, it's a case of possession" (Ebert). As it turns out, Kilmer has apparently held a camcorder in his hand for as long as he was strong enough to lift it, only putting it down in the stretches between "action" and "cut." This footage, spanning 800 hours of footage and 40 years of personal and professional life, is the raw material for Val, an intimate, honest, urgent, bittersweet, optimistic, hopeful documentary. "Now that it's harder to talk, I want to tell my story more than ever," says Kilmer through his son Jack, who narrates the film in the first person. In recent years Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer, and although he is currently in remission, his voice has taken the toll of radiation, chemotherapy, and two tracheotomies. Val is not a hagiography but a 'warts and all' portrait that devotes equal attention to the lows as to the highs; among the former none is more painful to watch than Kilmer’s current status as a living relic of himself, making appearances at showings of his more iconic films and signing autographs at comic book conventions; as he puts it, “basically selling my old self, my old career.” On the other hand, it’s a career that sells itself; in addition to the aforementioned The Doors and Tombstone, there’s Top Gun, Thunderheart, Heat, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Salton Sea, Spartan, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, just to name a few (the documentary can’t be accused of selective amnesia, though, revisiting as well the likes of Batman Forever and The Island of Dr. Moreau. All things considered, Val doesn't just preach to the choir; the movie includes home videos, audition tapes, behind-the-scenes stuff, and much more, making it an item of interest to fans of Kilmer, students of acting, and lovers of cinema alike.