At 62, actor Val Kilmer has decided to produce, with A24, a film about his past, his career and more broadly his life. A way for him to realize his memoirs in the form of a documentary film. Soberly titled Val , this documentary that traces the 40-year career of the actor, is directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo. The feature film is expected this Wednesday, January 19, 2022, directly on VOD.
Val: a look back at the career of a giant
Val Kilmer began his career in the early 1980s. He first played small roles and went through the stage of the theater. It is obviously his role as Iceman in Top Gun, in 1986, which gives him greater notoriety. From there, his career really took off, and Val Kilmer would become an icon of the 1990s. His fans can see him in Willow, The Doors, True Romance, Heat and of course Batman Forever in 1995. Unfortunately for him, his incarnation of the Dark Knight is going to be the beginning of the end. Val Kilmer struggles to find great roles and turns in second-rate productions, in any case which do not have the favors of the press and the spectators. This is how the public can see him in The Saint, Red Planet, Wonderland, or Alexander. 
The 2010s were even more complicated for Val Kilmer. The actor is diagnosed with throat cancer that permanently makes him lose his voice. The giant collapsed, and has been trying to rebuild itself ever since. Val clearly has the effect of self-therapy. Val Kilmer needed to externalize this whole experience, and to dig into the old memories of the past, as if to leave a last trace, to remind the world of cinema that it still exists, and that it still has things to tell. Still in remission, the actor begins to make timid returns, especially in the recent Paydirt, and soon in Top Gun: Maverick, expected on May 25.
A touching documentary
Inevitably, Val is a deeply touching documentary. Val Kilmer plays on the chord of nostalgia, on the heartstrings. The actor talks about his cancer directly, and remembers his best and worst career memories. The actor traces his entire life, from his beginnings, to the consecration, until his fall, and the onset of his illness. He also discusses his private life, his relationship with his two children. He chose his son, Jack Kilmer, as the narrator of the documentary. A nice choice, touching, which has a heavy representation of the notion of inheritance and passing. 
With Val , the mega star of the 1990s seeks to relive, to get back on his feet, to rebuild himself. Even if the doc does not always avoid an approach sometimes a little too melodramatic, it does not prevent that the emotional springs work, and that Val Kilmer shows itself as it is, lively, without artifice, and with a saving simplicity. Obviously, Val rests on a huge dose of nostalgia, and highlights a lost glory. Cathartic work for the actor, almost testamentary, it is also sometimes slightly pretentious, lacks humility and reminds viewers that Val Kilmer had a much more hectic life than theirs. Similarly, the documentary does not dwell enough on his shooting anecdotes, and the actor sometimes flies over his roles, preferring to focus on his present, his current state, and his illness. Just to bring tears to our eyes a little more. But overall, the documentary of the American giant hits the mark. The actor retraces his life with a lot of melancholy and talks about his cancer, his lost glory and the follies of his career without detour and with a certain emotion. https://youtu.be/gSfs0f95xBc
