Netflix & Chill #24: For The Love of Spock

Watched On: Netflix
Released: 2016
Directed By: Adam Nimoy
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Pick: Mine

I've been meaning to watch this documentary for awhile now and throw it in with the last round of my grand Star Trek Cycle (tentatively set to conclude in October, for those keeping score at home) but instead, Amazon Prime released pretty much all the movies, so I made my way through those instead and decided to do this one on its own and I'm glad I did, because it deserves it's very own post.

Directed by Adam Nimoy, son of the late great Leonard Nimoy, the documentary was originally conceived as a documentary about Spock, the character with an eye on release in time for the the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek in 2016. After the passing of his father in 2015, however, Nimoy widened the scope of the film to include not just Spock, but the life and career of his father beyond that character.

If you're a fan of Trek, then you slide this one right next to the excellent Chaos On The Bridge as a 'must-see' for any fan of the franchise, however, there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. Leonard Nimoy had a career outside of Star Trek- including stints on the original Mission: Impossible and as well as roles in movies and television shows ranging from Gunsmoke to The Outer Limits and anything and everything in between. He directed Star Treks 3, 4 and Three Men And A Baby and had a stage career which included a stint as Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof (damn that must have been incredible to see) and The Man In The Glass Booth. (Again, would have been amazing to see that.)

But the true richness in this documentary lies in the glimpses of the personal life of the man behind the ears as well as his somewhat rocky relationship with his children, but especially his son. You see a man who arrived in California, determined to be an actor, got married, had kids and was doing every job under the sun to support his family until his breakthrough finally arrived. The character of Mr. Spock and how iconic he became had a huge impact on the lives of everyone in Nimoy's family- Adam at one point describes truckloads of fan mail arriving at the house and how back in the day, they were still in the phone book, so fans would call the house and sometimes even drop by to say hello. (Which is straight-up crazy to me... )

Overall: There's a ton of stuff that gets left out of this- with a life of 83 years, there's bound to be, but I do think it's a beautiful tribute not just to Leonard Nimoy's career and the character of Mr. Spock but to the life of the man as well. My Grade: ***** out of *****

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Didn't Watch The State of The Union

I didn't watch the State of the Union last night for the first time in what seems like a very long time indeed. I didn't watch it out of some form of virtue-signalling protest. I didn't watch it because it started at about eight o'clock at that is prime time for bedtime for the kids. And anyone with kids will tell you: you don't mess with bedtime. Also, I just didn't care. I know in some areas of the flaming dumpster fire that is our political discourse these days that's a hanging offense. "You didn't care? How dare you not care! Aren't you against [insert controversy of the week here]?" or my favorite, "Well, you have the privilege of not caring about this stuff." No, it's not about my privilege. (That's an entirely different conversation.) I just genuinely did not care, because it did not matter. Both ends of the political spectrum live in parallel universes, I decided. They're going to listen to the same speech
Read more

Tintin, Ranked

Image
What can you say about Tintin? He's been around for decades- was one of the most popular comics of the 20th Century. He's spawned a television cartoon ( which I remember watching on Nickelodeon ) and more recently a movie ( two more of which are apparently coming, though it's been awhile since the movie dropped .) He hasn't been free from controversy- Tintin In The Congo is hard to find these days for a reason, the least of which is (what I'm guessing) the somewhat 'problematic' portrayal of Africans in the Belgian Congo when the reality of that chapter of colonial history was dark indeed. For sure, if there's an aspect of these books that makes me cringe somewhat, it's his portrayal of Africans. Herge's portrayal of Latinx individuals and cultures tends to be a bit better, though his portrayal of indigenous folks and Asians is somewhat mixed. He's excellent in The Blue Lotus , somewhat less so with his portrayal indigenous people in Ti
Read more

Psephology Rocks: Holiday Grab Bag Edition

Well, there's lots to talk about post-Election Day, not only in America, but there's a few bits and bobs from around the world worth touching on as well.  We'll start local and work upwards: Local:  Well, I went three for three in my City Council Endorsements- Botchway, Salih took the At-Large Seats and Susan Mims took the District B Seat.  The District B race between incumbent Susan Mims and student Ryan Hall was less of a contest than I think people were anticipating, as Mims won handily 59% to 41%. I had nothing in particular against Hall, per say- but I feel like if Raj Patel who was another student who ran a few cycles back (I want to say 2010?) had serious money and a serious platform behind him and didn't win, then Hall was going to be a long shot. He checked all the right progressive boxes for Iowa City, but he was running against an incumbent who might not be uber-Progressive, but not say, Terry Dickens either. I think Hall would have had a better shot aga
Read more