Val

"The life you live is the story you tell."

2021 1h 49m EN

👍

7.2

SOLID

★7.2TMDB · 245

Documentary

Synopsis

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For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood's most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors, has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.

“The life you live is the story you tell.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Val Kilmer
Self
Jack Kilmer
Self / Narrator
Mercedes Kilmer
Self
Joanne Whalley
Self
Kevin Bacon
Self (archive)
Fairuza Balk
Self (archive)
Marlon Brando
Self (archive)
Nicolas Cage
Self (archive)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ting Poo
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 5 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ting Poo, shot by Leila El hayani. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Garth Stevenson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ting Poo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Val Kilmer and Jack Kilmer and Mercedes Kilmer carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The life you live is the story you tell.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt14731254 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ting Poo directs. Leila El hayani behind the camera. Garth Stevenson scores. Ting Poo cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 5 years ago.
2Directed by Ting Poo, shot by Leila El hayani. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Garth Stevenson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Ting Poo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Val Kilmer and Jack Kilmer and Mercedes Kilmer carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "The life you live is the story you tell.".
7IMDB entry: tt14731254 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 10 themes, including "biography", "home movie footage", "archive footage", "struggling actor".

The technical file

Cinematography: Leila El hayani
Original score: Garth Stevenson
Editing: Ting Poo
Production design: Lauren Fitzsimmons
Runtime: 109 min · 1h 49m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Val (2021)

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Ting Poo

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Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb280390232022-09-03
★ 6/10
The line between fiction and reality is seldom as blurry as when it comes to actor Val Kilmer who, as clichéd as it sounds, is a true chameleon. As consumptive gunslinger Doc Holliday in Tombstone, Kilmer looks for all the world like a man who’s running late for his own funeral. And on The Doors, "He looks so uncannily like Jim Morrison that we feel like this isn't a case of casting, it's a case of possession" (Ebert). As it turns out, Kilmer has apparently held a camcorder in his hand for as long as he was strong enough to lift it, only putting it down in the stretches between "action" and "cut." This footage, spanning 800 hours of footage and 40 years of personal and professional life, is the raw material for Val, an intimate, honest, urgent, bittersweet, optimistic, hopeful documentary. "Now that it's harder to talk, I want to tell my story more than ever," says Kilmer through his son Jack, who narrates the film in the first person. In recent years Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer, and although he is currently in remission, his voice has taken the toll of radiation, chemotherapy, and two tracheotomies. Val is not a hagiography but a 'warts and all' portrait that devotes equal attention to the lows as to the highs; among the former none is more painful to watch than Kilmer’s current status as a living relic of himself, making appearances at showings of his more iconic films and signing autographs at comic book conventions; as he puts it, “basically selling my old self, my old career.” On the other hand, it’s a career that sells itself; in addition to the aforementioned The Doors and Tombstone, there’s Top Gun, Thunderheart, Heat, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Salton Sea, Spartan, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, just to name a few (the documentary can’t be accused of selective amnesia, though, revisiting as well the likes of Batman Forever and The Island of Dr. Moreau. All things considered, Val doesn't just preach to the choir; the movie includes home videos, audition tapes, behind-the-scenes stuff, and much more, making it an item of interest to fans of Kilmer, students of acting, and lovers of cinema alike.

Production companies