“SR.”
★★★★
OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / CERT 15 / 89 MINS
DIRECTOR Chris Smith
CAST Robert Downey Jr, Robert Downey Sr, Sean Hayes, Paul Thomas Anderson
A heartfelt, homemade documentary years in the making, “Sr.” is Robert Downey Jr’s attempt to mark the life and career of his father, the experimental filmmaker Robert Downey Sr, and capture his ageing, ailing dad for posterity. As you might expect from two filmmaking titans, it has a strange meta quality to it. We watch footage of Downey Jr playing with his kids, loving them 3000; then we watch Downey Sr, watching that same footage on a TV while offering notes, his directorial eye still focused and sharp. There’s a lovely dynamic between the two: Jr wears his heart on his sleeve, while Sr retains a sprightly rebelliousness to the end. The result is more interesting and unusual than you might expect from such a personal, navel-gazey project.