Wonderful character development!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

If you are, or ever have been, an avid reader of fiction, especially the SF/Fantasy genre, you can probably recall at least one author whose work was so vivid, potent and visceral, it changed the way you looked at everything - not just reading, or writing, but your entire world view - for the rest of your life. I recall that very moment well: I wasn't even into my teens yet, when I picked up a copy of DEATHBIRD STORIES and read "The Whimper Of Whipped Dogs." Whatever sense of true naiveté I had gasped its last breath that day, when I read the last page of that story.Not necessarily a bad thing, either. So when I heard about this documentary all these years later, I had to know if the man responsible for that story and that book, was every bit as cynical, angry, vitriolic, nihilistic and insanely brilliant as the reputation that preceded him. I can now verify: he is that and so, so much more.Perhaps it's most telling that at the opening of DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH, we are introduced to Harlan through the eyes, perception and quicksilver wit of one of the author's closest, long-time friends: Robin Williams. Harlan is at his calmest (if the word can be applied to him) and most amiable when he is in the company of like-minded, intelligent and especially famous people, many of whom chime in here to help tell his story: Neil Gaiman, Ron Moore, Dan Simmons and his own fifth wife, Susan among them (and she gets not nearly enough screen time, more's the pity.)Through rare home movie footage, recited excerpts of his work, various rants, tirades, anecdotes and reveries, we get a sense of who the man is apart from the author, and it's certainly a complex, perplexing, funny and often times very sad picture. For long-time fans, it will be a validation of everything you've heard over these many years since he began writing pulp paperbacks under a pseudonym barely out of his teens. If you're not a fan or haven't read a single thing by him, I would suggest you pick up an anthology like DANGEROUS VISIONS or even just a story or two if possible. That way, he'll look a lot less like just one more short, angry old man screaming "YOU KIDS GET THE F*** OFF MY LAWN!!!"

I had the privilege of watching this with two other people who saw Harlan Ellison with me at a now legendary appearance in the late 80's in Toronto, and we kept looking at each other and snickering. But even if you never saw him live, read any of his work, or had any familiarity with him at all, you can appreciate this documentary as being about a man WORTHY of a documentary. He's just that bloody entertaining.The soundtrack - by Richard Thompson, the legendary Brit folkie - is amazing, by the way.Some of the camera work is really amateurish, but most of the straight interview footage is well shot. The camera work and the parts that got left out of Ellison's bio - probably in deference to his storied litigiousness - are what knocked this down to 8 out of 10.His initial 'interview' with Robin Williams is worth watching even if you can't spend the time on the rest of the movie. Within minutes we were all helplessly laughing.If you're at all interested in SF, either literary or media, movies, have a love affair with the English language or just want to see what it's like to be a legendary, visionary, prolific, brilliant and uncompromising pain in the rear, see this film. I intend to watch it again as some of the dialogue went by so fast I missed it, and it was really, really funny.

Many of my heroes have gone unheralded in their own lifetimes. How many people have ever heard of (let alone actually read) Robert E. Howard or Shirley Jackson or Charles Beaumont or Harlan Ellison? Edgar Allen Poe, though he died in a gutter, is still read (though not as extensively as one might think: besides THE TELL-TALE HEART, THE BLACK CAT and THE RAVEN, how many of his vastly varied tales truly "live on"?). If not for the efforts of friends and admirers, H.P. Lovecraft would be dead and long-forgotten by now. Richard Matheson is one of a select few whose outstanding craftsmanship and boundless imagination have elevated them to the level of a "Grand Master." Another is Harlan Ellison. Ellison, unlike any other writer I've encountered (I actually met him at a comic book convention in Charlotte, North Carolina about ten years ago), pulls no punches- on the page or off. He has his way with words, if you will. It's fun to listen to him dissemble about comics (THE MASTERS OF COMIC BOOK ART) or writing (DARK DREAMERS, Vol. II, in which he mentions his story TERRA COGNITA and how it came to be) or anything else. His undeniable passion for writing is in itself inspirational. (When members of my own writing group used to ask me where I got my ideas, I would simply tap my temple with my index finger. "In here," I would tell them: "It's all in here, just waiting for me to access it." Ellison's response to that question is much funnier than mine, by the way...) When I came across an issue of something called ROCKET'S BLAST COMIC COLLECTOR (or something like that) that showed Ellison Wonderland itself, I pored over the fotos like an archaeologist trying to decipher ancient hieroglyphics. I looked for clues to Genius. They're there, I'm sure... all I have to do is decipher them. Then apply them. In a college writing course, I came up with what I've always thought was an apt metaphor: "Writing is the God-like act of Creation." Amen.

Even if you only know Ellison as the guy who wrote CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER on the original TREK (and he's in the middle of a lawsuit over it right now, 40+ years on!), this is a highly enjoyable documentary. Ellison, of course, is the star of his own film, but guests interviewed are also informative on Ellison's life and work. This is isn't a, "he was born in X, then he did Y and then...." kind of doc. Ellison does readings from his work and there are clips going back to the 60s with interviews on Tom Snyder, The Today Show etc. Visually, this is no great shakes, but definitely worth seeking out. The DVD is supposed to be out in June.After the screening, Ellison took the stage with Josh Olson (screenwriter of Cronenberg's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, and co-writer with Ellison of a Masters of Science Fiction episode a couple of summers back). Of course Olson didn't get a word in edgewise as Ellison was just so - HARLAN - as he went on for well over an hour. At times, it seemed like the documentary hadn't ended - it was still going on Live! Ellison was wise, profane and even touching. He could segue from talking in EXCRUCIATING detail about BOTH times he had crabs, and then talk with deep emotion about his father. But, then it's back to bragging about his sexual exploits - with his wife, Susan, standing 10 feet away! Of course, not only has she heard it all before, but she can dish it back!