A rare infotainment about the perverse Billy Burroughs, primarily set to tell the story behind the man rather than about the man behind the novels.
Chicago production studios, BulletProof Film wisely placed their money and trust into first time director, Youy Leyser, as he aimed to tackle the complicated and extensive life experiences of author WIlliam S. Burroughs, a man who offten incurred attention for all the "unfavorable" features: A pre-fashionable homosexual, junky and gun fanatic, on top of being an essential anarchist. Leyser triumphs as a film maker, humanizing the man of daunting and arguably odious subject matters. By the end, you'll see Burroughs for the sweet, intelligent qualities he always held from youth to elder, as well as realize how many pop-culture points were marked by his influence.
Standing apart from typical documentaries, which proceed chronologically, A Man Within sets up and knocks down Burroughs by order of character facets - a bold idea, but a superbly managed and ultimately preferable strategy. This function allows the audience to form opinion based upon collective aspects, opposed to the oscillating ups and downs the way time tends to detail a portrait. Each segment is connected by simple, but nevertheless fun, animation schemes by Aimee Goguen (also first timer) and Dillon Markey (Robot Chicken), reflecting each approaching subject. The links provide a relaxed nature to the seriousness surrounding them, and exhibits the conflicted nature of Burroughs himself.
Overall, there are so very few drawbacks to this piece that they're not even noteworthy, and this documentary is an impressive freshmen attempt at film making.
Comments
Beginning with the typo in the first line--preverse instead of perverse--and the misspelling of the director's name--Youy Lesyer instead of Yony Leyser--I had doubts about reading the rest of the review. Was Gari careless or was he intentionally insulting Yony in the same way that Elizabeth Taylor mispronounced names at the Tony awards on purpose? The question cannot be answered from the review itself, but the remainder of the writing showed the merit in persisting to the end of the review.
Great article!! I'm gonna track this film down now!!
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