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The Outsider Photos

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Movie Info

James Toback, a director who has spent several decades making movies on the edge of the mainstream, candidly discusses his career in this documentary that focuses on the making of his 2004 film "When Will I Be Loved" With commentary from a diverse roster of observers and actors, including Woody Allen and Harvey Keitel, the film sheds light on Toback's no-nonsense shooting style and the colorful lifestyle that informs his scripts for movies like "The Pick-up Artist" and "Fingers."

Genre:

documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Nicholas Jarecki
Producer:

Nicholas Jarecki
Writer:

Nicholas Jarecki
Runtime:

1h 25m

Cast & Crew

Woody Allen

Robert Downey Jr.

Neve Campbell

James Toback

Harvey Keitel

Mike Tyson

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for The Outsider

All Critics (17) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (6)

Quite entertaining.

July 11, 2006

Frank Scheck
Hollywood Reporter
Jarecki's tour of Toback's world may glean more than probe. But as these kinds of trips go, even looking at the scenery yields fascinating sights and stirs worthwhile curiosity.

June 16, 2006 | Rating: 3/4

Gene Seymour
Newsday
As is often the case with Toback's films, even as you're shaking your head at his shameless self-indulgence, you can't help but keep on watching.

June 16, 2006 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
The Outsider, Nicholas Jarecki's starstruck documentary about the writer and director James Toback, is a tragically missed opportunity to illuminate one of the more unusual cinematic talents working today.

June 15, 2006 | Rating: 2/5

Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Jarecki certainly thinks his subject deserves such an accolade, and he's made a great-looking film to make his case, one that is edited gracefully and briskly -- and leaves the heady aftertaste of birthday cake.

June 15, 2006

John Anderson
Variety
Among the great docs about moviemaking.

June 13, 2006

Rob Nelson
Village Voice
The Outsider is a first film and it comes with all the problems of a novice effort. It needs a firmer hand in the editing room and misses much of the point about what makes Toback so much an outsider in the Hollywood system.

August 24, 2017 | Full Review…

Dorothy Woodend
The Tyee (British Columbia)
Unless you're a fan, don't bother.

June 17, 2006 | Rating: 2.7/5

Eric Lurio
Greenwich Village Gazette
Toback quickly reveals himself as an insufferable, opinionated blowhard who pontificates shamelessly about the art of the cinema while indulging his own obsessions on film.

June 16, 2006 | Rating: 1/4 | Full Review…

Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide
Watching The Outsider is like mainlining pure movie love.

June 16, 2006 | Rating: 9/10 | Full Review…

Devin Faraci
CHUD
a piece of maddening hero worship

June 16, 2006 | Rating: 2/5

Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com
Shot largely during the production of Toback's feature, When Will I Be Loved, Outsider features extensive interviews with many of Toback's longtime friends and colleagues.

June 15, 2006 | Rating: 2.5/4

Ethan Alter
Premiere Magazine

View All Critic Reviews (17)

Audience Reviews for The Outsider

Aug 20, 2010

Fun doc for fans of and those employed in the film biz. Some very interesting and candid interviews with various highly quotable artists. Starts off as a too-glamorized portrait of Toback, but then evolves into interesting as we watch how the man works and witness that distributing an indie personal flick is always hell, especially, and even, for this man. It was enjoyable but not a breakthrough composition in terms of the film, sort of just standard fare biopic montage of interviews and old photos with the main thread of the piece being the documentarian's footage of Toback's then newest adventure in film-making.

_kelly . Super Reviewer