Nick Tosches Movies
- 2005
- Add Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow to QueueAdd Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow to top of Queue
Hubert Selby Jr. was a powerful and influential literary figure whose best-known novels, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, dealt with the dark underside of life in a way that was bleak and often shocking, but also laced with compassion and understanding for the tortured lives of his characters. Selby only completed the eighth grade when he became a merchant marine and contracted a severe case of tuberculosis from infected cattle. While Selby survived thanks to bootleg antibiotics, he lost a lung and had to give up his physically punishing work at sea. Selby took up writing and developed a unique style that helped make his first novel, 1964's Last Exit to Brooklyn, a critical success and a controversial best-seller. However, Selby developed a massive appetite for alcohol and drugs which derailed his career, and by the time he published his second book, 1971's The Room, Selby was all but forgotten. However, Selby's work developed a passionate following in Europe, and was rediscovered in the United States after a successful film adaptation of Last Exit to Brooklyn was released. Hubert Selby Jr.: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow is a documentary which explores the life and work of this unlikely literary icon, and features extensive interviews with Selby as well as his friends and admirers. Interview subjects include Lou Reed, Henry Rollins, Richard Price, Nick Tosches, Ellen Burstyn, Darren Aronofsky, Uli Edel, Amiri Baraka, and Jerry Stahl. Robert Downey Jr. serves as narrator. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Downey, Jr., Hubert Selby, Jr., (more)
- 2005
In the 1950s and '60s, Jackie Paris was one of the most celebrated jazz vocalists of his generation; he collaborated with such giants as Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Dizzy Gillespie, he was a favorite of leading music critics, and recorded for such top jazz labels as Impulse and East-West. But ten years on, Paris had fallen so far off the radar that a major jazz reference work reported that Paris had died in 1977, even though he was still around and occasionally performing at the time. In the 1990s, filmmaker Raymond De Felitta heard some of Paris' recordings and became an instant fan, and was deeply curious about Paris' life and career, and how an artist with such gifts had become little more than a footnote in music history. De Felitta's search eventually led him to Paris himself, and a fascinating story of bad luck, a wildly dysfunctional family, dangerous pride, a hair-trigger temper, and a remarkable voice that somehow survived it all, even if his career did not. 'Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris is a documentary which chronicles De Felitta's search for the elusive singer; the film includes interviews with Paris' family, friends, and fans, including Dr. Billy Taylor, Billy Vera, Joe Franklin, Ira Gitler, Harlan Ellison, and James Moody. Frank Whaley, Nick Tosches, and Peter Bogdanovich contribute dramatic readings of reviews of Paris' work from his heyday. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Paris, Jeanie Paris, (more)
