De Palma (2016)

What makes De Palma special is its simplicity: no fussy framing, no talking-head chorus—just Brian De Palma, clear-eyed and wonderfully candid, walking you through a lifetime of choices, risks, and obsessions as if you’ve caught him at the perfect hour. The film becomes an absorbing masterclass without ever feeling like homework, because his stories have the rhythm of great behind-the-scenes gossip and the honesty of an artist taking his own measure. Baumbach and Paltrow smartly let the clips do their own persuasive work, so you feel how De Palma thinks in images, how style becomes meaning, and how a career is built from both triumphs and bruises. If you want a broad survey of film history or a critical takedown, this isn’t that kind of documentary—but if you’re even mildly curious about how bold movies get made, it’s an entertaining, illuminating sit-down you’ll be glad you took.

De Palma is clearly aiming to be the definitive, relaxed sit-down with a legendary filmmaker, letting Brian De Palma walk you through his career with lots of juicy clips and war stories. The catch is that it’s essentially one long interview, so if you want a broader, more investigative documentary with dissenting voices or hard pushback, this can feel narrow and oddly unfinished. De Palma himself is smart and candid, but he can also come off as maddeningly self-assured, which will either be part of the fun or the thing that sends you reaching for the remote. If you’re a De Palma fan or a film-nerd who loves process talk, it’s a solid hang; if you need structure, balance, or emotional arc, it may test your patience.