I saw and reviewed James Toback’s Tyson at its world premiere at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and the docu-confessional certainly left a lasting impression … for the wrong reasons. Mike Tyson himself walked down the long aisle of the Lumiere theater after the screening to both a rapturous standing ovation from the home crowd, and a dimly heard protest cry of “rapist!” drifting down from the balcony (a female film critic later took credit for the latter). Suffice it to say, that contradiction made that Cannes premiere  … uh … memorable, regardless of the content of the film.

Almost a year later, there seem to be as few contrasting voices in regards to Tyson as there are in regards to Tyson within the film itself. The way this non-conventional nonfiction film, and what a cynic might see as the nefarious project behind it, has been accepted by the media virtually unquestioningly, even appreciatively (see the 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, higher than the current rating for the latest film from the critically beloved Dardennes brothers), cements that Cannes premiere as a crucial moment in documentary evolution. That night in May, the freak show aesthetic that marks salacious, nonfiction-in-name (if questionably in content) VH1 product like Flava of Love, Celebrity Rehab and Confessions of a Teen Idol, slipped seamlessly into Cannes, en route to a US arthouse release from the same company that brought you very classy recent Oscar nominees Frozen River, Waltz with Bashir and The Class. That night, any remaining distinction between the lowbrow non-fiction of reality TV and the rarefied space of the world’s most revered film festival ceased to exist.

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The 2009 Sundance Film Festival doesn’t kick off until Thursday, but there are already a few acquisitions and other news of note to report:

• Sony Pictures Classics has picked up both James Toback’s documentary Tyson (which Karina saw at Cannes) and Carlos Cuaron’s Rudo y Cursi. SPC co-president Michael Barker explained the reason for pre-buying: “It’s an advantage to have a company attached, to be able to answer questions, knowing what you’re going to do with it.” SPC also has Davis Guggenheim’s new doc, It Might Get Loud, at the festival.
• Though not U.S. distributor-related, congratulations must go out anyway to Cherien Dabis (who recently was interviewed on SpoutBlog’s Media Diet) for selling Canadian and international rights to her new Sundance-bound film Amreeka to Entertainment One.
• The documentary short you’ll be watching ahead of Thursday’s festival opener, Mary and Max, is actually a commercial for Sundance sponsor Honda. It will be one of the three shorts that have just gone up today on the automaker’s “Power of Dreams” website.

Interview with Chris Bell who made Bigger, Stronger, Faster –opening tonight. A doc going way beyond body building into the essence of an unspoken American pastime: Cheating. Karina reports back on Cannes and everything the media missed that it shouldn’t have: Tyson, Frontier of Dawn and Everything is Fine.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

FilmCouch #72 - Karina on Cannes, Kevin on steroids

Bigger, Stronger, Faster; Tyson; Frontier of Dawn; Everything is Fine

On the flight home from Cannes on Sunday, I sat next to a prominent female film critic who, like me, had major problems with James Toback’s much-praised Tyson. Particularly concerned about the section of the film where Mike Tyson tells “his side of the story” in regards to the rape that sent him to prison, she predicted that the film’s eventual distributor, Sony Classics, would likely have to tweak the Cannes cut in order to avoid a libel suit. But a story on the boxing site The Sweet Science indicates that might not be the only spot where Toback and Tyson fudge the truth.

The film virtually cuts straight from the death of Tyson’s former mentor Cus D’A,ato to his years working under the eye of Don King. Steve Lott, Tyson’s assistant manager from 1985 to 1988, sites numerous places where Tyson “lies” in Tyson, and accuses Toback of glossing over the years in which Lott worked with the boxer in order to better support the case that Tyson was “has demons, that he was a thug, that he was crazy.” Lott says the Tyson he knew was “neither an addict, nor a hoodlum, nor a manic depressive…[but] ‘the golden boy of corporate America’,” and that his life only started to spin out of control when Don King and Robin Givens stepped in. He also claims Tyson lies in the film about being forced to sign a contract when he was underage:

“I have the contract right here,’’ Lott said. “Mike Tyson was 18 when he signed that contract, not 16. He’s saying these lies for two reasons. The effect of Don King and all those years of him telling Mike it was the white guys who screwed him and the fact that Jimmy [Jacobs] is dead and can’t defend himself. I defy anyone to come out of the woodwork and say something bad that Jim did to Mike Tyson.’’

Of course, it’s possible that there’s a touch of sour grapes to Lott’s protests. The obvious (and admitted by Tyson) goal of Tyson––and the main reason why I find it so reprehensible––is to rehab Tyson’s image to the point where, as the Sweet Science story puts it, he can become “a product America will once again buy.” Lott apparently tried to do this himself two years ago:

Lott said he met with [licensing agent Harlan] Werner two years ago to discuss his ideas of how to help his old friend. He suggested he first get rid of the face tattoo he began to wear late in his boxing career and then do a series of exhibitions for the troops in Iraq followed by similar fund raising appearances in the U.S. for various fire and police departments.

In perhaps the only interesting stylistic element of the film, Toback uses overlapping voiceover and split screens to draw attention to where Tyson repeats and/or contradicts himself om various topics. Maybe this becomes a question of documentary ethics: is a filmmaker even responsible for “lies” told by his subject, if he draws attention to the fact that said subject is the world’s most unreliable narrator?

photo by Karina Longworth

France loves James Toback, and James Toback loves France right back. The New York auteur, whose work is more often than not unfairly maligned stateside, has already seen Fingers, his first (and best) film, remade by French director Jacques Audiard. The original is one of two Toback films screening at Cannes this year; the other, his documentary on long-time friend Mike Tyson, premiered to more than one standing ovation last night.

If France loves James Toback, Cannes, apparently, wants to take Mike Tyson behind the middle school and get him pregnant. Applause for Toback at last night’s screening was sufficient and polite (and, after the screening, it drove the filmmaker off the stage in tears); reaction to Tyson’s entrance verged on hysterical. So it’s fitting that Toback’s Tyson is a film that requires its audience to learn to love its subject, and even feeds on that love. I’m conflicted about the film’s ultimate value, but maybe Cannes got the Mike Tyson documentary it deserves.

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• Above: a detail of the special edition Julian Schnabel-designed Diving Bell poster that we’re giving away. The deadline to enter our giveaway was supposed to be earlier this week, but whilst at Sundance we got too busy to promote it. So, we’re extending the deadline to Wednesday, February 6. Full details on how to enter here.
• David Pescovitz at BoingBoing links to The Mindscape of Alan Moore, a documentary about the creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, which you can watch online.
• Amelie Gilette at The Onion A.V. Club “always thought that Jamie Foxx’s natural career progression would be Booty Call, Ray, Oscar win, release of the R&B album Unpredictable, release of the R&B album Hot Tub, Academy Award (These Are The Words I’m Sayin’ To You), followed by the launch of Academy Award Winner: The Fragrance (musky ego with notes of ugh).” She was wrong.
• “In 1993 Justin Timberlake joined the Mickey Mouse Club. In 1993 I officially joined the Mrs Doubtfire Fan Club. While membership is small, we all still share a love of vaccuming to Aerosmith’s ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady.’” Paul Scheer breaks down what sets him apart from the superstar with whom he shares a birthday.
• “It’s all in there,” James Toback tells Michael Musto of his upcoming Mike Tyson documentary. “The ear biting, the rape charge, which was indeed a setup, and the solitary confinement. Mike’s survived, but he’s not sure into what future. He talks about being 40 as if it were 105 because a lot of people around him are drugged out or dead. Where does he go now?”