MovieTime

Review

by Julie Rigg

This documentary about the journalist and former Hollywood social climber Dominick Dunne is the work of Australian filmmakers Kirsty de Garis and Timothy Jolley, made with much cooperation from 83-year-old, ailing, Dunne himself.

Now Dunne has had a crowded, and well-documented life. He married an heiress, went to Hollywood, became a publicist and briefly a film producer but was, by his own admission, an assiduous cultivator of celebrities. Finally his wife Ellen, with their three children, left him.

Dunne hit a low spot, and was brought even lower when his daughter Dominique was murdered. Then he began to channel that anguish and anger into writing about her murder, and covering celebrity murder cases for Vanity Fair.

While his sister-in-law Joan Didion has mainly kind but guarded things to say about Dominick, some of the most acerbic comments in the film come from his son, the actor and director Griffin Dunne.

It's an absorbing and honest film, but a sad one.

Director: Kirsty de Garis, Timothy Jolley
Cast: Documentary featuring Dominick Dunne, Robert Evans, Graydon Carter, Tina Brown, Joan Didion, Ben Pesta, Griffin Dunne, Mart Crowley, Liz Smith, Anne Fulenwider
Producer: Kirsty de Garis, Timothy Jolley, Sue Maslin, Daryl Dellora
Cinematographer: Alexandria Hammond, Andrew Commis
Editor: Suresh Ayyar
Music: Antony Partos
Running time: 85
Australian distributor: Film Art media
Language: English
Classification: M