Anyone coming to Dreams With Sharp Teeth expecting a formal, traditionally organized biographical sketch of author Harlan Ellison will be disappointed. But what they will find instead is Ellison more or less unchained and ranging (and raging) across his past and into the future (circa 2007), having great fun with his many and varied targets, and giving his own accounts of some of the triumphs that people often cite in his past. Perhaps the most satisfying moment comes when the author presents
his version of one portion (one of the least controversial portions) of his Hugo Award-winning script for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" -- he ends up making the production crew for the series look like fools, and longing to see the story told as he wrote it. By contrast, presented without comment is one excerpt of the award-winning Outer Limits episode "Demon With a Glass Hand," which apparently was shot more or less as he wrote it. In between and around these two polar opposite successes of his early career, Ellison rails and laughs, berates and curses, and generally has a great deal of fun launching his barbs at a multitude of targets, including himself, as often as not. One eerie aspect of watching him across this fast-paced account, which covers many decades of his life, is realizing how much Ellison resembles the late actor George Grizzard as he looked and sounded from the 1960s to the 21st century -- if there was an actor who might've portrayed this unique personality in a dramatic context, it was Grizzard. But much more important than any such mundane observations is the keen appreciation that the filmmaker has for his subject, sufficient to take us on what amounts to a cinematic roller-coaster ride across one part of Ellison's psyche. That's how it's paced, and that how it's best to take in this delightfully quirky and lively nonfiction film. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
It would seem no easy task conveying the essence of a bigger-than-life figure like Ellison in a 96-minute film. But Nelson, producer of Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, makes it look easy.
Documentarian Erik Nelson, overcautious of his subject, is content to let Ellison luxuriate in his legacy of infamy--as a lothario, and a litigious and pugilistic combatant.
Ellison é arrogante, mal-humorado, impulsivo, auto-indulgente, prolixo e agressivo. ... também brilhante, articulado e divertidíssimo %u2013 exatamente como este belo documentário que gira em torno não de sua obra, mas de sua personalidade.
If there is a criticism to be lobbed at Nelson's judicious but otherwise highly entertaining tribute, it's that it too often plays the role of the fawning, autograph-hungry fanboy, willing to accept all of the abuse Ellison wishes to hurl at it.
As documentaries go, it's a brilliant distillation of a figure of almost impossible scope. Here's hoping it opens Ellison up to a whole new audience - and here's knowing that they won't be ready for him.
Although nearly every filmgoer will enjoy the larger than life player in this 90- some minute presentation, writers will especially relate (or take exception, as the case may be).
A fascinating, if cautious, portrait of a great writer and a world-class crank who is never less than compelling and often completely justified in his rants.
Will inspire all writers, anyone concerned with intellectual property rights and every independent-minded grouch, whether or not he gives a fig for art or has a creative bone in his body.
If Nelson's aim was simply to give this bull a stage on which to rage, he's succeeded; if the director is also trying to advocate the importance of Ellison as a man of letters, he's wildly off the mark.
Harlan Ellison is irresistibly snarky, persistently cynical and preternaturally intelligent, and so are his stories. Dreams with Sharp Teeth illustrates that well by training an eye on his larger-than-life personality and his considerable accomplishments.
Harlan's life imitates his art. Angry. Rebellious. Uncompromising.
January 18, 2009
Randy Tippy
Super Reviewer
This documentary is relatively even-handed as it presents Harlan Ellison, a prolific, important, but impishly angry writer.There are several laugh-out-loud moments of the cringe humor ilk as we listen to Ellison rant about fans, writers, Hollywood, politics, and writing. I enjoyed listening to much of what he had to
say, but I don't think I could stand to be in the room with him unless I knew that he liked me and was unarmed.
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