Popular reviews

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  Review by Sean Baker 34

  How can a film lover not be intrigued by this subject matter. I really loved it. I'm sure that some could argue accuracy but this is Morgan Neville and he makes subjective documentaries... so I'm fine with liberties that might have been taken.

  After seeing this, I'm not sure I want to see Netflix's The Other Side of the Wind. 1) Not sure Welles ever wanted this completed 2) How can this be Welles's vision if it was edited 32 years after his death?

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  Review by nora ★★★★

  interviewer: h-
  orson welles: my new film is going to be the greatest film ever made, or more importantly better than citizen kane, because it’s a film within a film—OR OR wait i changed my mind maybe the process of filming the film is the real fil—NO WAIT what if this interview is the film and the process of talking about the film iS THE REAL FILM OR WHAT IF WE ARE ALLL THE FILM AND THE FILM NEVER ENDS AND NEVER STARTS AND WE NEVER STOP MAKING THE F

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  Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★★ 6

  “You’ll either hate it or loathe it.”

  If only this were The Other Side of the Wind. This documentary is good, solid, interesting, and even has snippets of Orson Welles from his own films answering questions that the film poses.

  “People will believe anything in movies."

  In my review, for The Other Side of the Wind, I describe the film as a mess. I like some of Welles' other work, but I believe The Other Side of the Wind is for hardcore fans only.

  “No other director has ever been held up to such an impossible standard.”

  The story behind the story is the interesting part. With interviews from Peter Bogdanovich and many others, the story is told well. I…

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★½ 4

  I have a lot of problems with this as history. Neville is honest enough to start the movie by question if Welles said or not the film's title, and making clear he is more interested in exploring mythmaking and playing at Welles. It is very well put together, but most in the level of a solid researched but shallow magazine piece. The kind that has no time to mention that Welles did F for Fake in the middle of shooting Other Side, but does find a minute for Huston doing The Man Who Would Be King. There's a lot of great footage from the shooting that more than justifies this movie existence and some good interviews, particular Bogdanovich. Also, as a good hardcore Welles buff I'm always a sucker for Gary Graver stories and this rightfully give him a lot of screen time.

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  Review by Cinematic Underdogs ★★★★½

  Listening to an aged and exhausted Orson Welles talk about filmmaking in this documentary is downright depressing. One gets the feeling that he is creatively stifled — both fiscally strained and intellectually arrested — and that the stagnation is tormenting him endlessly. His anguished disposition is almost unbearable to watch, even as he boasts in blustery terms about directorial detours and on set experimentation, such as a decision to shoot with a passive, improvisational, Beatnik-adjacent approach — ‘presiding over divine accidents.’  To say Welles became stuck in a rut is both an understatement and somewhat misses the mark. His creativity never ceased; he merely lost its linearity and capacity to finalize endeavors with architectural integrity. Welles’ aesthetic and perhaps existential…

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  Review by russman ★★★

  The greatest achievement of Orson Welles was his appearance in The Muppet Movie

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  Review by Brendan Michaels ★★★★½

  Neville shows such empathy towards his subjects and always shows a three dimensional view of them. The tragedy of Orson Welles in the end became the triumph. Orson Welles, the greatest mind to the cinema.

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  Review by eely ★★★½

  “no story has a happy ending unless you stop telling it before it’s over.”

  this movie is just one long lover’s quarrel between orson welles and peter bogdanovich. at one point orson talks shit about peter on tv and then sends peter one letter in which he apologizes for talking shit about him and another letter in which he tells him he deserved it, and then he told peter to pick the letter he wanted. insane. the fact that “why can’t i touch it” by the buzzcocks plays over the closing credits just makes things even more homoerotic. i loved it.

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  Review by Fatimah Mohammad ★★★★½ 7

  الكلام اللي تحت فضفضة و ليس مراجعة.

  بالعادة ما انزل كلامي هنا لكن بناء على طلب الفانز راح انزلها 🦦. 

  اورسن ويلاس من المخرجين اللي احترمهم احترام كبير مع اني ما تابعت له الا ثلاث افلام من اخراجه لكن واضح حبه للسينما بافلامه مخرج عنده رؤية سينمائية ممتازة. 

  المهم لقيت هالوثائقي بالصدفه و لفتني اسمه. دايم اسمع عن اورسن كلام ان شركات الانتاج ما تحب تموّل افلامه و دايم ترفضه. عشان كذا مثل بافلام رخيصه كثير مو لانه يبي هالشي بس عشان يموّل الافلام اللي من كتابته و اخراجه. 

  في مقابلة له يقول ما انعرضت علي افلام بأدوار ممتازة الأدوار الممتازة اللي امثلها هي اللي اكتبها لي. الشركات يعرضون عليه الافلام عشان اسمه فقط و يضطر يقبل فيها مثل ما…

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  Review by kevintporter ★★★½

  I'm just putting this together, but is Orson the pig in the U.S. Acres segments from the animated series Garfield and Friends a joke about Orson Welles?? Kinda mean!

  Now obviously Brain from Pinky and the Brain is an Orson Welles impression. But why were so many animated series in the 90s fixated on the Citizen Kane guy? This would be like Peppa Pig having a little french bulldog pal named David Frencher who designs his food and water bowls with utmost meticulousness and demands a hundred takes from his owner when throwing the ball to play fetch. I have never seen Peppa Pig.

  I wish there were more identifiers of who was talking for the interviews. Three and a half stars!

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  Review by 𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕞 (𝕃𝕖𝕠) 𝕧𝕒𝕟 𝕕𝕖𝕣 ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕟 ★★★½ 2

  A wonderful companion piece to The Other Side of the Wind. Manages to put the absolutely insane production history into a clear perspective while also channeling Orson Welles personal demons at the same time. Really, really great stuff. Using The Buzzcocks' Why Can't I Touch It? for the end credits is a moment of A+ comedy.

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  Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★½ 3

  In the immortal words of Harry Enfield, 'It aint over until the fat bloke sings' and now that they've gone and done it, this is me watching They'll Love Me When I'm Dead in order to gear myself up for The Other Side of the Wind.

  This might have got 4 stars if it wasn't for Alan Cumming. What on earth was the point of him here? And what was he doing with that accent? Was that deliberate or is that how he goes around talking these days? Why have him in-vision narrate the documentary anyway - especially when you have the Welles scholar Simon Callow on hand, and frustratingly have him heard but never seen or even introduced/credited?

  Oh well, I guess it's only fitting that a documentary on Welles' last great mystifying oddity throws up just as many questions as it does answers.