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Actor Val Kilmer was one of the leading talents in the 1980s and 1990s who carried the flag of Method Acting loudly and proudly; the California native’s work ethic came through loud and clear in a string of lovely performances that most thespians would give their left eyeteeth to have on their list of credits: a cocky flight pilot going toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, a self-destructive genius rocker in The Doors, an obscured mind-induced pop legend in True Romance, a thief with a heart of gold in Heat and – perhaps in his signature performance – a sly and crafty gambler with a penchant for gunplay who literally steals every scene in Tombstone. Other highlights abound of course, but those specific roles resound and matter in Kilmer’s filmography like no other, ensuring him a cinematic legacy that will carry on for as long as there are movies.
Val, a documentary from directors Ting Poo and Leo Scott and comprised of reams of home videos from Kilmer’s personal archives, touches on the above movies – and many more – that decorate the 61 year old’s lengthy resume, but it’s the spaces in between those films, the “silence” amidst the noise of the ever-rolling Hollywood hype machine, that matters the most in this nearly two hour deep dive into one of the best actors of his generation. The silence is Kilmer’s own weakened voice, ravaged from the effects of surviving cancer, and it speaks louder than any of the stalwart’s many great performances, and it’s that subduing of his distinguished voice that gives Val its real immediacy and beating heart. For, beaten back but never conquered, Kilmer plows ahead, his philosophical mindset guiding him through rough waters. This movie offers admirers of Kilmer a look at the star’s life once the stage has been struck and the paparazzi have all moved on to their latest obsessions. It’s at times jarring to see archival clips of the actor during his prime juxtaposed with him now as he fights to regain his balance and his career after such a devastating illness. The man who could give notorious director David Fincher more variations on a Shakespeare soliloquy that Olivier himself has fought on through the difficult times and you see just how critical his strong family life is in maintaining his inner-Zen. That closeness with family (Kilmer’s son narrates a good chunk of the film, standing in for his father’s own once rich voice) is even more important when it becomes apparent how soul-rending it is for him as he travels from one fan convention to the next to sign autographs for the masses, all so that he can continue to support himself as the acting roles he may have been great in get parceled out to other actors in-waiting. As someone who grew up and came of age during Kilmer’s Golden Age of great acting roles, these moments in the documentary hurt the most for me to watch; Or perhaps that stuff, difficult as it is, is needed: I never realized how much I valued Val Kilmer as a great actor than when I watched one scene after the next of him hitting the lucrative fan and autograph circuit, his biscuit and gravy days of Batman Forever a thing of the distant past.
As we dive into areas of Kilmer’s life, we get the full-on love the actor felt for his lost brother, we for the first time understand a little more fully about the demons that drove him to be the best in his craft. Val is also a ghost story, a film about people and places that are already long gone or, in our increasingly fast times, en route to Oblivion. Yet they still exist not just for Val, but for us as fans, too. Ghosts roll around this exquisite documentary as does the concept of time and what it means to everyone when we look in the mirror and see the years having their fickle way with us, even as the memory of us in our prime seems but minutes old.
Val is currently playing at select theaters and can also be seen streaming on Amazon Prime. If you care about the people and places that make up the collective history of motion pictures do yourself a favor and check this one out; it’s one of the best documentaries to hit landfall in years.
