“Mr.” on Netflix: Robert Downey Jr. and the moving documentary about his father | REVIEW

Only the paradoxes of life can explain how an actor born in a home where cinema underground it was everything ended up being an icon of the complete opposite: commercial cinema. We talk about Robert Downey Jr. (New York, 1965). Although he was already popular before playing Iron Man (Iron Man), wow, this role in the successful Avengers saga gave him fame all over the planet, but, above all, it inflated his bank account so much that today he might as well not act plus. Although we all know that he will continue to do so. His love for cinema comes from his blood.

“Sr.”, the documentary that Downey Jr. has just released on Netflix is ​​precisely that, a portrait of that indestructible bond that the beloved ‘Iron Man’ has with the seventh art, originated mainly by the history of his parents with said industry : Robert Downey Sr. –of whom the documentary is about– and the actress Elsie Downey. Both of them, first, taking him by his side while they searched for locations to record various films that would later take over American theaters in the second half of the last century and, later, promoting his early acting debut, forged a 100% cinematographic identity in this man.

At an hour and a half long, “Sr.” It is posed as a tribute from the son to the father. From the first minutes of him, Downey Jr. makes it clear that “not everyone knows” what his dad did as an independent filmmaker. In this sense, the idea is to rescue and exhibit not only his most emblematic films — placing them in a specific context, such as world peace, non-racial discrimination, or love — but fundamentally to draw a portrait of that misunderstood director who found in the cinema a form of happiness until the end of his days.

The documentary is traversed by two narrative lines. The first, meta-cinematographic to call it somehow, has Robert Downey Sr. himself executing his latest project called “Mr. Cut”. We see him directing a cameraman, walking around filming areas and finally advising the ‘editor’ on which footage to cut, add and replace.

The second is the homage itself. In this piece of history, we will see, above all, an 85-year-old man suffering the consequences of an aggressive Parkinson’s disease that would ultimately take his life in July 2021. Although everyone around him is aware that the outcome because of this evil it may be imminent, no one stops at it and they prefer to continue sharing with their loved one.

“Mr.” it is in black and white and has New York as its main location not for any reason, but because it is the so-called ‘Big Apple’, the city that the honoree loved with fascination throughout his life. The protagonist of this audiovisual project tells it when he remembers, for example, that he had to almost “flee” from Los Angeles after failing to make some very bad movies.

If something becomes clear as we go through the viewing of the documentary, it is its variety of resources. To the dialogues and jokes that father and son perform in front of the cameras, we add small flashbacks in which we will remember tapes like “Putney Swope”, “Pound” or “Greaser’s Palace”, each one more picturesque than the other for what is the cinema today. There is also an attempt (not always fruitful) by Downey Jr. to extract work confessions from his father that go beyond an easy joke or a simple anecdote.

Since the man always ends up passing through the character, it is inevitable to trace the life line that Downey Sr. had as a husband and father. The documentary, without being hagiographic, gives a little more weight to the good over the bad. He does so, for example, when describing the affection with which the filmmaker cared for her second wife, Laura Ernst, after she was diagnosed with ALS in the nineties. On the opposite side, in “Mr.” there is also some space for the director’s link with the world of drugs, into which he would end up dragging his youngest son.

Regarding the external participation, it is the actor Alan Arkin (New York, 1934) who becomes one of the main voices of “Sr”. He gives his opinion because he knows and worked with Downey Sr. He is joined, in much shorter excerpts, by the filmmaker’s sister and aunt from ‘Iron Man’, and also his last wife, Rosemary Rogers, who accompanied him until his last days in the midst of the trance that would mean suffering from Parkinson’s.

The Netflix documentary is gaining in emotion and sensations as it approaches the end. The grandfather, father and son triangle is present before us.

With the coronavirus pandemic bothering the lives of millions across the planet, video calls -so typical in moments of isolation- will become recurring, and it is Downey Jr.’s charisma that must come to the rescue in various sections of the documentary. On one side, the “Avengers” actor, his cell phones and his mints, and on the other, the old man, his cell phone and the serum bottles.

When the aggressiveness of the Parkinson’s suffered by Downey Sr. was so great, the walks and the jokes gave way to stretchers and silences. From this moment on, the story before us becomes heartbreaking at times. It is here when a scene arises: father and son alone in a room in the beloved city of New York meet face to face after a long time.

– “Is it hot outside?” Downey Sr. asks his son.

– “No, it’s cold and it’s raining,” the actor replies.

-“It’s better, that’s how better shots come out”.

Cinema, until the end of his life.

Robert Downey Mr./ NETFLIX

Director: Chris Smith

Cast: Robert Downey Sr., Robert Downey Jr., Alan Arkin, Kevin Ford, Paul Thomas Anderson

Synopsis: Robert Downey Jr. pays tribute to his late father in this documentary about the life and eclectic career of filmmaker Robert Downey Sr.

Duration: 90 minutes