jellopuke You get a bit of everything here; looks at cranky Harlan, rants, and book excerpts. While it'd be nice to have some more in depth analysis of his work, his personality is just so big that it overpowers it all. Super entertaining movie.

Moritz Eggert Harlan Ellison is hands down one of the most fascinating personalities of literature, and this documentary does him justice by just letting him talk about god (or his/her nonexistence) and the world. A lot of these monologues are rants, but they are so fascinating to listen to (and wildly entertaining) that you will enjoy this documentary greatly. I cannot judge how Ellison comes across in this film if you don't know his writing already, but one thing is sure: he doesn't care if you like him or not. In this age of political correctness, of hypocrisy, of dancing around important subjects out of fear of having any kind of stance or position Ellison is somebody you should listen to. Behind his facade of the angry old man spouting vulgarities is probably the most moral and ethical person you could ever meet on this planet. His views on subjects like intellectual property are enlightening and important, his critique of our superficial and anti-intellectual society is spot-on. As a film the parts that come across the weakest are some computer visualizations of Ellison's prose, but it's great to hear the man himself reciting excerpts from his stories. Neil Gaiman talks very sympathetically about his friend, as is Robin Williams (who comes across as endearingly vulnerable and warm-hearted, especially in hindsight of his suicide). Dan Simmons acknowledges that he owes his career to Ellison, as do many others. All in all a great an entertaining documentary that every budding writer should watch to learn one important lesson from the master himself: writing (and art) is not for sissies. You have to take a stance, and you should not be afraid of getting s***thrown at you. Ellison has gone through all that, and has remained true to himself all the way.

Allegra Sloman I had the privilege of watching this with two other people who saw Harlan Ellison with me at a now legendary appearance in the late 80's in Toronto, and we kept looking at each other and snickering. But even if you never saw him live, read any of his work, or had any familiarity with him at all, you can appreciate this documentary as being about a man WORTHY of a documentary. He's just that bloody entertaining.The soundtrack - by Richard Thompson, the legendary Brit folkie - is amazing, by the way.Some of the camera work is really amateurish, but most of the straight interview footage is well shot. The camera work and the parts that got left out of Ellison's bio - probably in deference to his storied litigiousness - are what knocked this down to 8 out of 10.His initial 'interview' with Robin Williams is worth watching even if you can't spend the time on the rest of the movie. Within minutes we were all helplessly laughing.If you're at all interested in SF, either literary or media, movies, have a love affair with the English language or just want to see what it's like to be a legendary, visionary, prolific, brilliant and uncompromising pain in the rear, see this film. I intend to watch it again as some of the dialogue went by so fast I missed it, and it was really, really funny.

Joe Stemme Even if you only know Ellison as the guy who wrote CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER on the original TREK (and he's in the middle of a lawsuit over it right now, 40+ years on!), this is a highly enjoyable documentary. Ellison, of course, is the star of his own film, but guests interviewed are also informative on Ellison's life and work. This is isn't a, "he was born in X, then he did Y and then...." kind of doc. Ellison does readings from his work and there are clips going back to the 60s with interviews on Tom Snyder, The Today Show etc. Visually, this is no great shakes, but definitely worth seeking out. The DVD is supposed to be out in June.After the screening, Ellison took the stage with Josh Olson (screenwriter of Cronenberg's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and co-writer with Ellison of a Masters of Science Fiction episode a couple of summers back). Of course Olson didn't get a word in edgewise as Ellison was just so - HARLAN - as he went on for well over an hour. At times, it seemed like the documentary hadn't ended - it was still going on Live! Ellison was wise, profane and even touching. He could segue from talking in EXCRUCIATING detail about BOTH times he had crabs, and then talk with deep emotion about his father. But, then it's back to bragging about his sexual exploits - with his wife, Susan, standing 10 feet away! Of course, not only has she heard it all before, but she can dish it back!