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Nick Nolte: No Exit
The fascinating life and career of Nick Nolte is uniquely and brilliantly documented in a fabulous documentary from 2008 called Nick Nolte: No Exit which closely examines this loose cannon of an actor in a way that I have never seen before in a celebrity documentary that found this reviewer riveted from opening to closing credits.
Finding something different to bring to a celebrity documentary is not an easy feat but director Tom Thurman has happened on a most unique way of approaching this enigmatic subject. The documentary is mounted in the form of an interview with Nolte, but Nolte is playing the role of the reporter as well as himself. They appear to be skyping each other as the reporter Nolte is seated in front of a computer and is posing questions to actor Nolte who apparently is supposed to be in a different location. Actor Nolte is also seated in front of a computer but while he's talking pictures from his past and screenshots from his movies apear on his screen in tandem with the questions he's being asked. The reporter Nolte is dressed in a cream colored suit and a matching fedora. The actor Nolte is dressed in what appears to be blue-striped flannel pajamas.
This was such a cool concept for this kind of documentary because it provided just about all the information you think you would have liked to have known about the actor, but it allows Nolte artistic control in terms of what is being talked about, but not in the way you think...there are a lot of things here that are addressed that are either succinctly explained, like the infamous mug shot, or the actor tells us straight out that he doesn't want to talk about it...like his arrest for selling counterfeit government documents, which was written into the backstory of his character in Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
Despite this unique approach in getting the story, we also get the expected commentary from people who have worked with the actor like Ben Stiller, Jacqueline Bisset, Powers Boothe, Barbara Hershey, James Gammon, Roseanna Arquette, directors Paul Mazursky and Alan Rudolph, writer FX Feeney and co-founder of Orion Pictures, Mike Medavoy. There is a refreshing underlying theme to their commentary that helped to give this look at the actor validity, I loved the answer supplied by each commentator when each was asked what they thought the inside of Nolte's brain looked like.
We get a nicely selected glance at the actor's career, mostly through Nolte's eyes and some screenshots, though no actual film clips were employed. I was surprised to learn that most of 48 HRS was improvised, that it took a year of pressure from Peter Yates for him to do The Deep and that the only film he wanted to do the second he read the script was Down and Out in Beverly Hills. The stories Paul Mazursky shared about the making of that movie had me on the floor.
I loved some of the photos of his pre-stardom life. His theater work is briefly touched on and while he's talking about it, there is a still that comes onscreen that looks like him playing Starbiuck in a production of The Rainmaker. Also really enjoyed learning about the relationship he had with Marlon Brando, how uncomfortable he is with comparisons to the acting legend, and that Q & A was Brando's favorite film. This documentary was absolutely amazing and made me want to sit down and watch every movie Nick Nolte ever made (starting with the ones I haven't seen of course).
The fascinating life and career of Nick Nolte is uniquely and brilliantly documented in a fabulous documentary from 2008 called Nick Nolte: No Exit which closely examines this loose cannon of an actor in a way that I have never seen before in a celebrity documentary that found this reviewer riveted from opening to closing credits.
Finding something different to bring to a celebrity documentary is not an easy feat but director Tom Thurman has happened on a most unique way of approaching this enigmatic subject. The documentary is mounted in the form of an interview with Nolte, but Nolte is playing the role of the reporter as well as himself. They appear to be skyping each other as the reporter Nolte is seated in front of a computer and is posing questions to actor Nolte who apparently is supposed to be in a different location. Actor Nolte is also seated in front of a computer but while he's talking pictures from his past and screenshots from his movies apear on his screen in tandem with the questions he's being asked. The reporter Nolte is dressed in a cream colored suit and a matching fedora. The actor Nolte is dressed in what appears to be blue-striped flannel pajamas.
This was such a cool concept for this kind of documentary because it provided just about all the information you think you would have liked to have known about the actor, but it allows Nolte artistic control in terms of what is being talked about, but not in the way you think...there are a lot of things here that are addressed that are either succinctly explained, like the infamous mug shot, or the actor tells us straight out that he doesn't want to talk about it...like his arrest for selling counterfeit government documents, which was written into the backstory of his character in Down and Out in Beverly Hills.
Despite this unique approach in getting the story, we also get the expected commentary from people who have worked with the actor like Ben Stiller, Jacqueline Bisset, Powers Boothe, Barbara Hershey, James Gammon, Roseanna Arquette, directors Paul Mazursky and Alan Rudolph, writer FX Feeney and co-founder of Orion Pictures, Mike Medavoy. There is a refreshing underlying theme to their commentary that helped to give this look at the actor validity, I loved the answer supplied by each commentator when each was asked what they thought the inside of Nolte's brain looked like.
We get a nicely selected glance at the actor's career, mostly through Nolte's eyes and some screenshots, though no actual film clips were employed. I was surprised to learn that most of 48 HRS was improvised, that it took a year of pressure from Peter Yates for him to do The Deep and that the only film he wanted to do the second he read the script was Down and Out in Beverly Hills. The stories Paul Mazursky shared about the making of that movie had me on the floor.
I loved some of the photos of his pre-stardom life. His theater work is briefly touched on and while he's talking about it, there is a still that comes onscreen that looks like him playing Starbiuck in a production of The Rainmaker. Also really enjoyed learning about the relationship he had with Marlon Brando, how uncomfortable he is with comparisons to the acting legend, and that Q & A was Brando's favorite film. This documentary was absolutely amazing and made me want to sit down and watch every movie Nick Nolte ever made (starting with the ones I haven't seen of course).