The Outsider

The Outsider

2005
Documentary
1h 25m
The Outsider, a feature-length documentary from first-time writer/director Nicholas Jarecki, is a film about film, specifically, the power of film to create, to move, and to endure. It follows one of America's most obsessive and intriguing filmmakers, James Toback, writer/director of 11 movies. Filmed over an 8-month period, The Outsider follows Toback through all phases of the making of his new film (shooting, editing, scoring, and release)... Green Room Films)
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The Outsider

2005
Documentary
1h 25m
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Avg Percentile 42.65% from 30 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(30)
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Rated 02 Dec 2010
20
41st
"The Outsider doesn't have the edge of a race-conscious James Toback film." - Ed Gonzalez
Rated 23 May 2012
88
52nd
Can a guy who's too smart to compromise get his film sold? A look at a Mailer-style fighter and auteur struggling in the morass of today's film business. Great clips from Toback's incendiary work (and Norman Mailer, too).
Rated 26 Aug 2014
70
16th
I got the sense that Toback is particularly high on the smell of his own farts.
Rated 16 Dec 2017
50
43rd
Jarecki seems happy to just gather some anecdotes and not push anything too hard or too far. Toback is, as everyone in the film says, "a character", but perhaps it is only with hindsight that some of the participants (I'd point to Woody Allen and Brooke Shields) seem quite reluctant to say too much about Toback or endorse him too emphatically. Have only seen FINGERS (decades ago) and TYSON, so am not really in a position to evaluate the man and his work, but he's clearly a slave to his drives.
Rated 18 Jan 2018
53
32nd
The myth of Toback has always been more interesting than the reality. Fingers was a great debut, but no other film he made even comes close. This plays like an advertisement for When Will I Be Loved--the film Toback was shooting and trying to distribute while Jarecki was filming--and a valentine to a kind of antiquated American 'renegade' auteurism. Jarecki is too enamoured with his subject, and fans won't find anything new here while newcomers are unlikely to be won over by Toback's hustle.

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