Cannes. Tyson.

"The New York auteur, whose work is more often than not unfairly maligned stateside, has already seen Fingers, his first (and best) film, remade by French director Jacques Audiard. The original is one of two Toback films screening at Cannes this year; the other, his documentary on long-time friend Mike Tyson, premiered to more than one standing ovation last night."

"Those who think of Mike Tyson as just an animal unleashed upon an unsuspecting world should welcome the alternative perspective provided by Tyson, James Toback's revelatory closeup look at the tumultuous life of the former heavyweight champ," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy. "Although straightforward in format, the film capitalizes on an obviously intense connection between filmmaker and subject with psychological acuity and emotional power."

"[T]he saddest film I've seen at Cannes - and that's saying something - is Tyson," blogs the Boston Globe's Ty Burr. "The tragedy is that, by the end, Tyson, an old man at age 40, seems to have acquired self-knowledge but not genuine wisdom; he has renounced the animal within but seems uncertain with what to replace it. You come out of the movie hoping for the best and fearing for the worst, which already is a more nuanced position than you probably went in with. A strong, troubling work, with some astonishing fight footage from the 80s and 90s."

"People may be less inclined to judge after watching this feature-length interview, but the feeling of never entirely understanding what makes Tyson tick still persists," writes Allan Hunter for Screen Daily. "All the mellow musings on his past misdemeanours and a life littered with second chances never quite takes us to the heart of this tragic figure."

Variety's Anne Thompson talks with Toback.

Un Certain Regard.

Updates: "It'd be easy to see parallels between Toback and Tyson; both have fought with addiction and struggled with their way in the world, albeit with Toback doing so under far less scrutiny," writes James Rocchi at Cinematical. "And Tyson never strains to reach for meaning to a degree that feels phony or false, although I'm fairly sure that others will be glad to do that on its behalf."

"Here is a film that supposedly allows the boxer free rein to set the record straight and yet actually provides him with the rope he can use to hang himself," writes the Guardian's Xan Brooks. "It's not that Mike Tyson is stupid (on the contrary, he's far smarter than your average pug), but he is deluded and possibly damned, a paranoid man throwing phantom blows off either wings; fighting endless battles for the wrong reasons, often with the wrong people and almost always with the wrong tactics."

"Toback told us before the screening that he wanted to capture Tyson as a 'complicated and in many ways noble human being,'" recalls Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "One can dispute the adjectives, but he certainly succeeds in rendering a man frequently depicted as an almost animalistic stereotype of African-American manhood as a tortured and vulnerable person who has genuinely struggled to understand his flaws."

"Toback, who for 30 years has directed movies about extreme characters seeking Nirvana through self-destruction, has always been fascinated by athlete-studs; his memoir of football icon Jim Brown still curdles the memory," writes Time's Richard Corliss. "So Tyson can't help but hit Toback's sweet spot: the fighter is smart, reflective and scary, even as he reminisces about his time in the ring."

Update, 5/22: James Rocchi talks with Toback for Cinematical.

Update, 5/23: Geoffrey Macnab talks with both Tyson and Toback for the Guardian.

Update, 5/27: Karina Longworth notes that some are questioning the facts in this doc.

Coverage of the coverage: Cannes 08.

Last year: Cannes @ 60. And Cannes 06.

Posted by dwhudson at May 17, 2008 6:17 AM