Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (Movie)

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    ‘Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story’ Review: A Legend and His Kryptonite

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    The original Superman actor gets a comprehensive, if narrow-mindedly celebratory, tribute in this traditional talking-heads-style doc.Biographical documentaries too often turn into hagiographies, so you could imagine how that’s even more easily the case when the subject is as beloved as Christopher Reeve. The actor, who is best known for playing Superman in the original 1978 film (and the three sequels that followed in the 1980s), gets a suitably comprehensive tribute in the HBO doc “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.”Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, this traditional talking-heads-style documentary weaves together deep-cut archival footage from Reeve’s heyday and interviews with his three children, other relatives, and friends in the business (like Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg). The filmmakers jump back and forth in time, presenting early on a 1995 accident that would forever change Reeve’s life.Reeve was thrown from a horse, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. But the movie’s shaken-up timeline keeps the documentary from becoming a mere before-and-after story. Instead, it considers the breadth of Reeve’s career and personal life — his beginnings in the theater, his feelings about playing Superman, his efforts to break the mold, and his two most important romantic relationships — with his injury looming over his successes like Kryptonite.Reeve’s bond with his fellow actor Robin Williams also makes up one of the documentary’s meatiest threads, adding depth to the character study. In many ways, Reeve actually was a gentle all-American type, but footage of his friendship with Williams brings out his funny, artistic — and dark — side.The documentary argues that without Williams and Reeve’s wife, Dana (who deserves a film of her own), Reeve wouldn’t have pulled out from his post-accident depression.Their love and optimism were key to his rehabilitation and turn to activism. Too little is said about some disabled people’s criticisms of Reeve’s advocacy (specifically, the belief that it was overly fixated on a cure as opposed to promoting destigmatization), which would have productively complicated the portrait. But that’s no surprise considering the narrow-mindedly celebratory scope of this homage.Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve StoryRated PG-13 for language and themes. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Watch on HBO Max. More

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      Best Movies and Shows Streaming in December: ‘Skeleton Crew,’ ‘Dexter: Original Sin’ and More

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      “Pop Culture Jeopardy!,” “Laid,” “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point” and “Sugarcane” are arriving.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of December’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘Pop Culture Jeopardy!’ Season 1Starts streaming: Dec. 4The “Saturday Night Live” stalwart Colin Jost hosts this “Jeopardy!” spinoff, which follows the basic format of the original quiz show, with a few twists. Rather than three individual contestants, each game features three, three-person teams, competing. The teams tackle clues that largely avoid history, geography and high art, instead dealing with memes, movies, TV, sports and modern pop songs. In addition to the Daily Doubles, each round includes a Triple Play with three answers — one for each team member. Also, the season is one big tournament, giving viewers a chance to root for their favorites as they advance toward the finals.‘The Sticky’Starts streaming: Dec. 6Based very loosely on a notorious Canadian maple syrup heist, this crime comedy mini-series stars Margo Martindale as Ruth, a farmer’s wife, who takes over the syrup-tapping business when her husband is hospitalized, and runs afoul of the powerful trade organization that runs the industry. To save her land and get revenge, Ruth teams up with a not-quite-reformed mobster (Chris Diamantopoulos) and a warehouse security guard (Guillaume Cyr) to steal barrels from the national syrup reserve. Created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro, “The Sticky” finds the dark humor in this crazy scheme; but it’s also a low-key portrait of a rural Canada populated by eccentrics and petty bureaucrats.‘Secret Level’ Season 1Starts streaming: Dec. 10Each episode of this animation anthology was inspired by a different video game, taking inspiration from concepts and characters in titles like “Pac-Man,” “Armored Core,” “Spelunky,” “Warhammer 40,000” and more. Created by Tim Miller — who has some experience with this kind of thing, having previously created the Netflix anthology “Love, Death & Robots” — “Secret Level” features an all-star voice cast, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Temuera Morrison, Kevin Hart and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. While each installment is different in approach, the series’ supervising director, Dave Wilson, gives them all a similar C.G.I. sheen, aiming more for a look more photorealistic than cartoony.Also arriving:Dec. 3“Jack in Time for Christmas”Dec. 5“Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story”“The Red Virgin”Dec. 23“Chiefsaholic: A Wolf in Chief’s Clothing”Francesca Scorsese in Tyler Thomas Taormina’s “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.” IFC FilmsWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Christopher Reeve and 6 Takeaways From the Documentary ‘Super/Man’

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      The new film chronicles the life of the paralyzed star, covering his friendship with Robin Williams and gut-wrenching details about his care and family.The documentary “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” traces the life of the Juilliard-trained actor who found megastardom in the 1970s and ’80s playing Superman, and in 1995 as a different kind of hero, after an accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. It features never-before-seen footage of Reeve, who died in 2004 at 52, chronicling his early days; his pivotal friendship with his Juilliard roommate, Robin Williams; and his transformation, in a wheelchair and on a ventilator, into a leading disability and research advocate. Friends like Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg and John Kerry offer their observations; disability rights activists do, too. It’s a thought-provoking tear-jerker.It also doubles as a family movie, showing Reeve in his role as a father to his three children — Matthew Reeve and Alexandra Reeve Givens from an early relationship that he fled at the height of his fame, and Will Reeve, his son with his wife, Dana Reeve. With unwavering support, she largely gave up her career as a singer and actress to care for her husband. She died of cancer in 2006, just 18 months after him, leaving behind their son, then 13.The compounded tragedy is leavened by the hope that Reeve embodied, especially with the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which has invested $140 million in the search for a cure for spinal cord paralysis. The film — which arrived in theaters 20 years after Christopher Reeve’s death, almost to the day — chronicles their determination, and doesn’t flinch from the darkest moments, including money worries and the relentlessness of day-to-day caregiving.Reeve, left, and his wife, Dana, with the comedian and actor Robin Williams after Reeve’s appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony in March 1996.Vince Bucci/AFP, via Getty ImagesThe unvarnished approach — and the timing, with Reeve’s children having reached solid footing as adults — led the siblings to agree to the project after years of turning down other offers, said Will Reeve, 32, a correspondent for ABC News and a look-alike to his father. They hoped their home movies and archival material “would provide a deeper meaning and greater texture to his story,” he said, “and remind folks of the fullness of life that one can have, despite whatever catastrophic injury they may suffer, whatever disability they may have.”In a video interview from London, where they’re based, the filmmakers Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui discussed their rationale for not putting Reeve “on a pedestal,” as Ettedgui described it. “It was really important to show how someone who you might think of as being somehow perfect — the ideal hero — how they experience the same insecurities, the same family issues that the rest of us might,” he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More