There's plenty of production detail for Kubrick nuts, though the two competing narratives (Kubrick the genius, Kubrick the tyrant) won't surprise anyone.

| Mar 5, 2020

If there is a cult around Kubrick, Vitali was the first card carrying member.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 27, 2018

That's where the greatest qualms may come in this stylish and sometimes overly reverential portrait: It's as if Vitali never really existed without the director.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 12, 2018

"Filmworker" is a first-rate account of the ongoing creative process some call dysfunctional. Well, anyone would call it that, actually. But some would also call it worth it.

| Jun 2, 2018

"Filmworker's" greatest value lies in pulling the lens back to allow viewers to understand film as a deeply collaborative medium, one in which even the most venerated auteurs cannot accomplish their greatest feats alone.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 30, 2018

Whether you're fascinated by Kubrick or the human condition this is a minor classic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 25, 2018

Next time you watch a Kubruck movie, take note of the high-contrast black and white, or of how consistent the colors have remained over the decades. Thanks, Mr. Vitale!

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 25, 2018

Tony Zierra's fond and slightly unsettling film is, among other things, a reminder of the egolessness necessary for great egos to flourish.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 24, 2018

The interviewees in Filmworker are lit unflatteringly and not always asked the most pertinent of questions... But some of them offer telling glimpses of how this relationship looked from the outside.

| May 21, 2018

[An] edifying, occasionally troubling documentary...

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 20, 2018

Anybody with any interest in Kubrick will be diverted by Filmworker, but it remains an oddly clunky piece of work.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 18, 2018

Naturally, excuses are made here, mostly by 69-year-old Vitali himself... but it's difficult not see this film as anything other than a gripping portrait of the worst excesses of an industry that continues to support, and nurture, megalomania.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 17, 2018

But as a portrait of a man who surrendered his career and much of his life to the service of a master, "Filmworker" proves compelling, particularly for those with a passing interest in Kubrick.

| May 17, 2018

Thanks to the documentary, [Leon Vitali's] contribution is bound now to be acknowledged.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 16, 2018

It's a fascinating movie, hosted largely by Vitali himself, now older, no doubt wiser, though still visibly excited and perplexed by the enigmatic genius whom he served.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 16, 2018

By revealing the darker side of Kubrick, we're given an original take on his legacy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 15, 2018

Filmworker is an absorbing, important portrait of both a genius at work and the man behind the scenes who made the magic possible, whatever the cost to himself.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 15, 2018

As [Vitali] recalls these experiences, we get behind-the-scenes glimpses of Kubrick at work on his last films, though how substantive these are depends to an extent on who's interviewed (or not).

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 11, 2018

Watching Filmworker as a cinephile, it's easy to be awed by the Zen-like devotion of Vitali's life's work. But it's also possible to be simultaneously filled with rage at the way people like him are simply left to run endlessly on their hamster wheels.

| May 10, 2018

Compelling, despite its modest and uneven means.

| Original Score: B | May 10, 2018