It is the actor’s great struggle to take their work seriously without taking themselves seriously. To selectively activate the mechanisms of emotion in order to embody credible human behavior or an aestheticized alternative is no small task, requiring study, training, and respect. Nonetheless, the person forging through this intimate, complex process must bear in mind the underlying absurdity that they are an adult being paid, on some charmed occasions in staggering sums, to play make-believe.

Continue reading ‘Val’: Val Kilmer’s Life As A Misunderstood Artist Is Showcased In This Wholly Conventional Bio-Doc [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

In 2014, actor Val Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer and went public with his illness in 2017. Because of the various surgeries that impacted his throat, the actor’s voice has radically changed, and in fact, he has a difficult and even painful time talking. And now, because of that, Kilmer says he wants to tell his own story “more than ever.” Thanks to directors Ting Poo and Leo Scott, A24, and Amazon Studios, he’ll be telling it very soon in the new doc, “Val.”

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“I was the first guy I knew to own a video camera,” Val Kilmer says in the first trailer for the Cannes-bound doc, “Val.” “I have thousands of hours of videotapes and film reels that I have shot throughout my life.” In the trailer, Kilmer says he’s wanted to make a film about acting, “where you end, and the character begins.”

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Here’s the official synopsis from Cannes:

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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.

Continue reading ‘Val’ Trailer: Val Kilmer Doc Wants To Tell His Story More Than Ever In New Cannes-Bound Film at The Playlist.