IMDb user comments for
The Outsider (2005)

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Awesome insight into an uncompromising filmmaker, 13 April 2006

Author: kpaolino from United States

From Bugsy to Two Girls and a Guy, you know his movies, but may not know the man behind them. This documentary about James Toback is very entertaining and informative. With only a partial script and 12 days to shoot a feature film, we learn a lot about what it takes to be a director who "makes things happen".

The best scenes show Toback actually directing the actors, demonstrating the difference between directing and micro-managing. There are some great anecdotes from "celebrity guests", and a lot of great insight from Toback's good friend Robert Downey, Jr., who has been in quite a few Toback pictures. (The Pick-up Artist, Two Girls and a Guy, Black & White to name a few). Don't miss the story of how Toback's agent first met him.

Criticism: It's essentially a long commercial for When Will I Be Loved, Toback's latest. It doesn't go too far into how seedy Tobeck's life became when he was younger, and focuses too much on how uncompromising he is as a filmmaker and not enough on what continues to drive him, some 30 years later.

This film defines contemporary film mounting (as in to mount a play) in new light, 17 September 2007
Author: shepherd-27 from United States

I would be interested in see all of the impossible to see music list and performers' credits. For the most part all that music was so brilliantly melded into the film that it was unnoticed. The title content and performances, and the music insertions were subtle and superbly appropriate. 'Loved this film and cannot find it replayed on Sundance anytime soon.

This is more of a request to publish the music titles and performance artists' names and descriptions.

Most excellent in in the content of the film is the fact that this is an almost to teaching tool for young film, TV, and stage directors. The effect of non-objective direction is the sense for the actors that they are in a relaxed and trusting process with a director who is more of a coach and certainly not a bit of a dictator providing the actors with a thorough sense of self-assurance and confidence. What a sense of relief and release for an actor to feel very certain that he or she is relieved of the pressure of pleasing the director and that what really happens is that he lets them discover what satisfies them and where the best place is for them to be in in the context of the total production. Mailer's comment to this point is the thesis, them, and center of the film, quite improvisational and almost unintentionally. And this director embodies what Mailer "writes."

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