Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most well-known and popular actors of our time, but less is known about his late father, Robert Downey Sr. At least, until Jr. and director Chris Smith teamed up to make a documentary about Sr.'s life, simply titled Sr. In an interview with IndieWire, Chris Smith revealed that they didn't really know what the movie was going to be like before making it, and they had no idea how to pitch the movie to distributors:
“There’s no way that this film would’ve ever gotten through that process because we couldn’t answer what it was because we didn’t know. And to me, that was something that’s being lost in the modern landscape of documentary... It’s very hard to get a commissioned film where you say, ‘I have no idea what it’s going to be or where it’s gonna end.’”
The documentary was shot independently before luckily being picked up by Netflix. The improvisational filming method paid off, and the movie received an overwhelmingly positive reception from critics. In a way, the method of filming alone is an homage to Robert Downey Sr., who strayed from conventional filmmaking procedures. Robert Downey Jr. called it a 'creative responsibility' to make the documentary this way:
“There is a certain creative responsibility, which is you don’t want to just indulge or shock or repeat. And so the invitation from Sr. is always saying, ‘This is not that special. You don’t need to revere it that much. Nobody ever changes the game by trying to just get in and fit in. There’s room for innovation wherever you go.’ And his approach is to learn the rules and then break ’em.”
Robert Downey Sr. created a lot of low-budget films that contained themes of anti-establishment, absurdism, and counterculture. While his zany movies never broke through to mainstream audiences, that was never the intention, and those films gained a cult following. Robert Downey Sr. has acted and directed in dozens of films from the 1950s all the way up to his retirement in 2013. He passed away on July 7th, 2021, from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 85 years old.
Robert Downey Jr. Learned More About His Dad While Making 'Sr.'
The documentary shows Robert Downey Sr. bonding with his son, as well as clips from Sr.'s old films. Although it unfortunately wasn't finished before Sr.'s passing, Robert Downey Jr. was extremely grateful for the experience, one that helped him get to know more about his father. Jr. called the making of the movie an 'unfolding process,' one that his dad enjoyed:
“But the second [that] dad was happy doing what he was doing, Chris knew that he would be distracted enough to not interfere with this unfolding process... There were times when Chris and I looked at each other, and we knew that, hopefully, we’d be fortunate enough to see this through to the end of his life and that it would be something that he would look back on as happy, closing arguments for his art, his life, his role as a parent, as a husband, as a whatever. And it’s a tricky thing because the jury’s out on all of us.”
The jury is indeed out, and the verdict is a positive one, with the film reaching a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, along with warm receptions from many other film critics and reviewers. You can watch the trailer for the Netflix doc below.
Sr. began streaming on Netflix on November 18th, 2022. It was produced by Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, and was directed by Chris Smith.