Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (2021 | USA | 127 minutes | Robert B. Weide, Don Argott)
It’s nearly impossible, from a third party perspective, to give the full account of a man’s life. To read about him in a book, a magazine, or a newspaper, to talk to those who knew and loved him, it’s barely a caricature of the actual person; a two-dimensional facsimile. Fortunately for him and for us, director Robert Weide didn’t have to stoop to such measures to discover what made Kurt Vonnegut tick, he lived it.
He met him, grew to know him, grew to love him, and over several decades’ time this film became a footnote in a friendship that would come to define him. Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is a love letter to a friendship that would span many years, many life changes, and bring meaning to both their lives.
What I liked best about Weide’s documentary wasn’t Kurt’s infectious and hearty laugh, his effervescent personality or the thoughtful intimate moments he caught so often on film (though those were delightful in their own right), but that he gave us the truth of the man behind the curtain. Yes, he meant the world to millions, brought sanity to the lost and lonely, and inspired critical thought in high schoolers the world over. But much more important than that, he was a human being. He dealt with loss his entire life; tragic heartbreaking loss that sometimes seemed to consume him.
Writing was painful for him at times, it brought out the worst in him, his children suffered in a way but they also loved him dearly. He left his first wife when he’d finally found success, something I found incredibly raw and made me angry at this Goliath of a man. But my feelings of anger, upsetting as it was, made the film so much more rich and opened his life up wide for us to see him as he really was, not just the two-dimensional mythical figure he’d become in his success.
While I think too much of the Robert Weide’s own life was injected at the very end of the film, it was such a personal and profound piece of work for him, finally completed, I can’t deny he has every right to it. I don’t think he made this documentary for anyone but himself and if the rest of us enjoy it, so be it. A way for him to reflect on his own life, how it was changed irrevocably, and tell the story of his friendship with such a complex man.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is now in theaters and VOD