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After having explored George Lucas, David Lynch, Hitchcock, and even William Friedkin in earlier documentaries, Alexandre O. Phillippe turns his consideration in the direction of an unlikely topic, William Shatner, in his latest movie, “You Can Call Me Bill.” Framed round a free-associative dialog with the famed actor, Phillipe’s new documentary is perhaps catnip for any Trekkie but in addition represents one thing of a regression after the filmmaker’s probing “Lynch/Oz” final 12 months.
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Instead, “You Can Call Me Bill” is consultant of a number of different hagiographic documentaries that crop up yearly that purport to make clear a determine however actually act as superficial monologues by which the topic spins a selected sort of narrative about their life and profession. At 91 years outdated, with a number of memoirs and a lifetime within the highlight, Shatner’s life isn’t precisely a thriller, so no matter novelty comes from having him inform the story of his upbringing or first time enjoying Henry V (as Christopher Plummer’s understudy, no much less), is finally subtle.
Organized into chapters, “You Can Call Me Bill” begins with a John Muir quote: “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” This units up an fascinating parallel between Shatner’s TV persona because the relentless explorer Kirk in “Star Trek” and his newer flip in the direction of conservation. Yet, that thread is rarely actually adopted by, with the movie settling right into a extra linear transfer from Shatner’s childhood onwards.
As he discusses his life, Phillipe freely consists of dwelling images and clips from his varied exhibits and films. Of course, we get a variety of “Star Trek” and “The Twilight Zone,” in addition to his stand-up comedy and musical performances. These montages primarily serve to underline no matter theme a given chapter explores — “Love, Death, and Horses,” “Masks,” and many others. At the beginning, it’s a compelling construction, however because the movie wears on (and the chapters pile up), the organizational scheme begins to learn extra as a means for Philippe to attempt to make sense of Shatner’s rambling associations.
By ceding the ground to Shatner, the movie misses the kitschy elements related together with his physique of labor. Anyone who has listened to a Shatner album, or seen his talks at conventions, understands that Shatner’s persona has at all times straddled self-seriousness and understanding self-mockery; it’s what made his efficiency as Denny Crane in “Boston Legal” so memorable. Here, nonetheless, the movie leans extra in the direction of the previous, with Shatner describing his work as Kirk and the Priceline Negotiator with equal reverence.
Further, the movie appears unwilling to maneuver past the scope of its titular topic. There may be very little right here about his sophisticated friendship with Leonard Nimoy or his decades-long feud with George Takei. There’s a quick interlude about his journey aboard Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket in 2021, however much less about his relationship to house journey and NASA. The movie solely exhibits what Shatner is inquisitive about speaking about, leaving a substantial chunk of his life out. Obviously, Shatner is utilizing the movie as a means of writing a extra full narrative of his life. Still, the movie fully eschews outdoors context by focusing so singularly on him.
“You Can Call Me Bill” isn’t a travesty; listening to Shatner talk about his life is at all times fascinating. But as an alternative, the movie’s a missed alternative to unpack one of many extra enigmatic figures in our public consciousness. Shatner’s profession has consistently whiplashed between excessive and low, fashionable and avant-garde (critically, take heed to his albums). His physique of labor deserves the identical sort of therapy as Phillipe’s different documentaries.
The filmmaker’s most fascinating work has usually used the documentary kind as a kind of prolonged literary evaluation, both within the type of juxtaposition (as with “Lynch/OZ”) or shut studying (with “78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene”). It’s odd, then, that Phillipe would revert to such a airtight method to somebody who’s so well-known for his outsized public persona. What we get right here is simply too attuned to Shatner’s recursive narration that the whole lot bleeds collectively even with Phillipe’s chaptering. [C]
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