Kritiken

Scott’s respectful appreciation of Ashby’s work positions him as an artist who captured the cultural pulse and inspired generations to pursue their vision and make socially relevant films.

Scott barely considers the discrepancy between these revelations and Ashby’s humanist cinematic vision, choosing to focus on the films. The result is an unsatisfying human study, albeit a successful overview of Ashby’s work.

“Hal” deals with each of the director’s films in a smart, engaging manner. As befits a former editor, director Scott has an ear for the great quote and the skill to make it all flow beautifully, to both entertain and help us understand who Ashby was and what he wanted to do.

This is a pleasant run through Ashby's back catalogue that is likely to make you dig around for your copy of Harold And Maude and The Last Detail, but though it brings "18 tons of peace and love" to the man's memory, it only feels like part of the story.

It must have been daunting to make a film about a master editor and filmmaker, but Scott has clearly learned from her careful attention to Ashby’s films. The documentary is exceptionally well paced and structured, and has insightful interviews...

The ever-changing mix of personalities that defined Ashby’s generally shapeless films is poorly explained.

It’s a consistently engaging trip. Ms. Scott has assembled a nice, fairly well-rounded group to testify on her subject’s behalf.

But if there’s still the sense that Ashby isn’t as sanctified as American New Wave stalwarts Coppola or Scorsese — with his stories of small-bore goodness invariably less sexy than tales of gangsterdom — Amy Scott’s breezy tribute of a documentary “Hal” is out to correct that oversight... “Hal” is the kind of career survey designed to spur rewatches and never-too-late introductions to his work.

[O]n the near-zero chance that someone who isn’t at least extremely familiar with the man’s work ends up watching the film, they will find themselves shit out of luck. That’s because, despite all of the assembled documentary bric-a-brac (extended clips, archival materials, interviews with celebrity fans and collaborators, excerpts from letters and memos read in voice-over by Ben Foster, etc.), the movie is remarkably short on necessary context...

Though clearly aimed at fans, it presents only a chummy overview of his life and career, too superficial to work as a biography, an in-depth appreciation, or even a primer.

The film is simultaneously insightful and exhausting, playing like a semester's worth of information stuffed into a single two-hour lesson.

There is obviously much more to the complicated and neglectful side of the filmmaker than is included here... Still, filmmaker Scott has dug very deep to unearth a great deal of valuable information in the way of diverse commentary and visual documentation, the end result being a very keen appreciation of a key figure from one of Hollywood’s most fascinating and rewarding eras.