a review of 方

Val Kilmer is an actor I grew up with, although the first time he made a deep impression on me was when he ‘became’ Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991). I also loved Kilmer in Willow (1988) and Heat (1995). I saw the original Top Gun for the first time several years ago. It was entertaining 1980s nostalgia, but not very memorable to me. The Val documentary was confronting and daring, unequivocally showing how Kilmer has lost his voice to throat cancer, alternated with footage of the handsome devil he was in his younger years. What bugged me throughout the documentary though was the fragmented narrative. The documentary seems to reflect Kilmer’s apparently disorganized state of mind these days, resulting in an exhibitionistic mixed bag of short, often unremarkable recordings, like an unstructured video scrapbook.