Synopsis
A focus on a year in the life of rapper Earl “DMX” Simmons as he is released from prison in early 2019 and attempts to rebuild his career in the music industry and reconnect with family and fans.
DMX: Don't Try to Understand
2021 Directed by Christopher Frierson
Cast
Director
Producers
Jody Gerson Bill Simmons Marc Cimino Clark Slater Christopher Frierson Noah Malale Sean Fennessey Steve Rifkind Barak Moffitt Geoff Chow Sean Gordon-Loebl Robert Alexander Pat Gallo Daniel Seliger
Editors
Cinematography
Composer
Studios
Country
Language
Alternative Titles
Don't Try to Understand: A Year in the Life of Earl 'DMX' Simmons, Music Box: DMX: Don’t Try to Understand
Genres
Popular reviews
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Always loved Earl's voice.
There was a moment where he reunited with his eldest son and it made me tear up.
🔗
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A raw look at raw man.
It was difficult watching Earl on screen. There was something performative in his interactions with others, like he was trying to convince himself everything was going to be OK.
The scenes with his eldest son were tragic. It felt like his son saw past the DMX persona, and understood his Dad’s pain, and its trajectory, in a way that Earl couldn’t.
I feel for his family. Heartbreaking stuff.
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I heard rap’s greatest preacher and he growled and howled through his sermons with the gruffest gravitas ever heard. A complicated series of contradictions stood behind his every utterance on record. There was nobody more spiritually alive in a rap record from the late ‘90s because there was nobody who had to search so painfully and connect to some higher spirit, some greater belief that his atrocious childhood was not the whole story. DMX offered absolution for anyone who ever felt the same way. Anyone who burned their childhood and looked back and wondered if this was the only stage of life.
Don’t Try to Understand realizes how difficult of a figure DMX was to understand. This isn’t about the…
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wisdom.
unconventional. scattered. like in Jagged, this movie ends on a wholesome high, an emotional crescendo. functioning as a eulogy and a reminder of life.
rip dmx.
the documentary lives up to the title. don't try to understand. true and authentic.
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Appropriately chaotic and honest, incredibly poignant and tragic in multiple instances. I liked the overall portrait this captures of DMX more than the experience of watching the documentary itself, idk how to explain it, I just don’t think I jived w/ the fly-on-the-wall aspect of this as i thought maybe. They cap this off in the end with a scene of DMX singing “The Way We Were” in the end with his family at home that is so heartbreaking it still hurts.
6.0
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DMX was a scary dude, for a long time; if he could destroy his own family and admit to it, bet that he'd do worse to you. It was the fable, none of it committed entirely out of malice, but it was also the truth. Frierson and Bill Simmons aren't in agreement over how to confront this legend, the former infatuated with verité, and the latter a bit hungry to replicate the success of Netflix's pump-n-dump doc factory, only further complicated by the subject dying during post-production. While I would've voted for a top-down revision of the footage, DMX: DON'T TRY TO UNDERSTAND seems to have merely made minor edits to a film completed nearly 20 months ago, sacrificing a…
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I'm giving this three stars, despite not really loving this very much.
What makes this look at complicated, troubled, and revered rapper Earl Simmons so fascinating is that director Clark Slater didn't realize he'd be filming DMX during the final year of his life. What was intended to be a look at a recovering addict and recently released prisoner trying to rebound instead plays as something a lot more poignant in hindsight.
It's very clear that Slater has a lot of empathy for his subject, even when that person fails to show up for agreed interviews and appointments. As far as showing a lot of grace and light towards an addict, Slater's film is commendable, and it's a documentary that's…
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A troubling and heartbreaking documentary focusing on DMX’s tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of his landmark album It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, which unwittingly became a document of the last couple years of his life. Strong, sad, fly-on-the-wall filmmaking.
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"Don't Try To Understand It"
Cocaine is a Helluva Drug! This was a very healing journey for X. His soul had a lot battles with trauma, fame, greed, demons & life with all them damn kids sheeeesh.
Voice of a Generation for the Late 90s into the 2000s. My first vivid memory is hearing X at my School Ball 😆 Man him & Busta were my guys during my High School Days. I had all the Albums via Napster or Audio Galaxy 😃. What a time that was lol. I was Super grateful to be at the 2006 Year of the Dog Tour Concert at Trust stadium. Damn the Weed was strong that Night 😆
Forever present in all the scenes with…