selections from reviews of "Doc," the new feature documentary
"Scientist,
novelist, activist, inventor, filmmaker, architect, prophet, healer and madman
Harold L. 'Doc' Humes was, by all accounts, an exhilarating, infuriating and terrifyingly brilliant man.
His Oscar-nominated documentarian daughter Immy Humes has gathered testimonials from luminaries
including Norman Mailer, William Styron and Timothy
Leary, who experienced his erratic genius firsthand, and has skillfully
interwoven them with archival footage into 'Doc.' Fascinating, wryly distanced
docu... at Gotham's Film Forum, will likely get
increased play with the upcoming reissue of H.L. Humes' once lavishly lauded,
long out-of-print novels.... Casual footage from the era captures the excitement of liberation and the
headiness of artistic ferment.... Immy imaginatively segues from unexpected angles, mapping out the complex
historical, cultural and personal synapses that link the man to his times....Tech credits are first-rate, including inventive editing and Zev Katz's jazz-laced score." – Ronnie Scheib, Variety
Absorbing! Could have been subtitled Portrait of the Artist as a
Madman… Doc emerges as a quintessential countercultural figure,
embodying both the exuberance and the excesses of the times. More
poignantly, Immy Humes finds redemption for the father who was often
too preoccupied or too sick to tend to his family.” – Tom Beer, Time Out NY
“The latest in a series of documentary
films… made about an esteemed and estranged relative by one of the
subject’s offspring. It is also one of the very best. Directed with
tight, but understated control by Immy Humes… (Norman) Mailer is
particularly eloquent about Humes’s
larger-than-life personality and the ebbing and flowing sanity that
went with it. Expert blending of period documentary footage… some of
the most well-spoken talking heads ever assembled… tempered by the
affecting tenderness of first-person emotional subjectivity… nothing
short of inspiring… deliciously ironic… a fine film.” – Bruce Bennett, The New York Sun
“(A) lively and loving documentary!” – V.A. Musetto, New York Post
“An extraordinary true story! The work
achieves a fine balance between intimacy and a broad, culturally and
historically nuanced perspective. Rediscovering Doc Humes is like
opening a series of fat files filled with essential, yet unknown
secrets about the 20th century literary world. The reprinting of Doc’s
novels after almost 50 years will bring a major writer back to life.”
– Elizabeth Bachner, Film-Forward
“An engaging time capsule of ‘60s downtown subversive culture.” – Lisa Rosman, Flavorpill
“An
exquisite example of a real life story given newfound dimension through
a playful, scattershot montage… glued together by the film’s delectable
soundtrack choices. The stylistic success here is so great that it’s
easy to lose sight of the film’s central figure, a brilliant and
inventive figure with a mind as divergent and curious as the
construction of the film itself… By so expertly meshing subject and
approach, DOC achieves that rare case of a person truly given new life
on the silver screen.” – Rob Humanick, Slant
“The fascinating life story of its subject, a
brilliant man whose early life reads like a road map to the ideologies
of the beat era… Cool, revelatory anecdotes from the likes of George
Plimpton and Norman Mailer make it an invaluable record of one magnetic
man’s historical footprint.” – New York Magazine
“DOC
channels whole decades of American cultural history through its
subject, revealing a personal yet unsentimental portrait of the man
against the backdrop of his times. Through an imaginative use of
drawings, writing snippets, stills, home movies, interviews, archival
footage of New York, Paris, and London and a vibrant jazz soundtrack,
the filmmaker mixes elements as textured as the subject himself.” – Karen Kramer, The Reeler