When you’re one of the biggest movie stars in the world, making a documentary about your father might seem counterintuitive to some people. Celebrity documentaries of late have become mainly acts of self-mythology, offering up intimate yet controlled behind-the-scenes access that impersonates the intimacy fans crave from their faves. They are often reliably solid pieces of reputation management.
Counterintuition is part of Robert Downey Jr.’s enduring allure. Rather than burnish his legend, Downey takes the documentary route to focus our attention on Robert Downey Sr., his late father. The elder Downey was a noted filmmaker in his own right, a titan of American independent film long before his son played Iron Man and Charlie Chaplin. However, the younger Downey’s tabloid exploits and critical and commercial triumphs may have eclipsed his father’s cinematic contributions in the broader public consciousness.
Sr. is Downey’s effort to correct the record. The documentary is a full-throated celebration of Downey Sr. as a filmmaker. It covers his role as a critical satirical voice in the ’60s and ’70s counterculture era, his films pushing cinematic boundaries with a wicked-sharp absurdist bent. Through archival footage and moments from his movies, we see a creative who eschewed functional limits. Downey’s recollections of his work further demonstrate this to delightful effect. We learn how he paid a man $50 to lie on the ground for a key scene in Putney Swope, and his mother’s horrified reaction to Chafed Elbows, about a man who marries his own mother. His immense creativity, fearlessness, and irreverence, regardless of finances and conventions, flowed through every aspect of his career.
Downey’s creative vitality also informs Sr.’s structure. The creative team – Downey Jr., his co-producer and wife Susan Downey, producer Kevin Ford, and director Chris Smith – frame the documentary as a directorial exercise for Downey Sr. He insists on producing his cut, known as the “Sr. Cut,” where he maps out shot lists on paper and has the crew install an editing bay in his home. It’s a charming and inventive device that offers two distinct but equally true and valuable perspectives of Downey’s life. While Smith is the director, he still grants Downey agency in how his story is told from a narrative and, perhaps more importantly, a technical standpoint.
That agency is key, given how Sr. also chronicles the final two years of Downey’s life. Downey had Parkinson’s Disease, and throughout the film, we see how his health deteriorates. It’s jarring to see him walk across a New York bridge in one section and then sit in a wheelchair in the next. And yet, his weakening physicality doesn’t detract from Downey’s irrepressible spirit, humor, and creative mind. (He is so committed to his cut that he moves the editing bay into his bedroom.)
Downey’s battle with Parkinson’s shifts the film’s calculus a bit as his son comes to grips with the imminent reality. Sr. shifts from Downey’s filmmaking to the personal struggles beneath the celluloid surface. Drug abuse greatly affected both Downeys’ lives, and the film acknowledges how the father’s choices influenced his son’s high-profile addiction. The loss of Downey’s second wife, Laura, to ALS also spurs deep reflection. These conversations, some conducted over the phone because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are thoughtful and probing but not exploitative or uncomfortable. As is their way, the Downeys are just exploring their little pocket of the universe with as much candor and spirit as they can muster.
While the film is undoubtedly about Downey Sr., Sr. also opens a critical window into his megastar son. Anyone wondering where Downey’s signature cheekiness comes from needn’t look far. His father’s influence (and his mother’s, whose narrative presence is surprisingly limited) is unmistakable. What’s also clear, and ironic, is how much Downey deeply respects him. It leaps off the screen, whether the circumstances are comedic or emotional. That uncharacteristic reverence sometimes intercepts deeper insight into how his father’s presence shaped Downey’s childhood and young adulthood. (Susan Downey alludes to some unresolved tension between them.) However, it serves as a heartwarming counterbalance to his public persona.
Under anyone else’s purview, Sr. would’ve been pretty solid reputation management. Infused with Downey’s deep love and respect, the film is a fascinating, funny, and heartfelt celebration of an influential filmmaker and father. It is also a surprisingly vulnerable rumination on legacy, family, and coming to terms with grief and loss. Sr. is a stunning tribute that achieves an intimacy between audience and subject that very few celebrity documentaries can match. The Downeys should be proud.
Sr. was viewed in the Spotlight section of New York Film Festival 2022.
Director: Chris Smith
Rated: NR
Runtime: 89m
Infused with Downey’s deep love and respect, the film is a fascinating, funny, and heartfelt celebration of an influential filmmaker and father.
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GVN Rating 8
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A late-stage millennial lover of most things related to pop culture. Becomes irrationally irritated by Oscar predictions that don’t come true.