SXSW 2023 Review:
"William Shatner:
You Can Call Me Bill"
Release Date: March 22, 2024
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 96 minutes Very few of us will live long enough to take a flight into space and stare down at Earth from 60 miles above the planet. Or to look into the depth of space and see nothing but darkness. So it is impossible to comprehend the profound effect of traveling into space had on William Shatner, an actor whose career is defined by his fictional endeavors to boldly go where no man has gone before. “The planet is all we have. And it is so ephemerally small. We don’t grasp how small it is until you look at it,” Shatner recalls with a melancholy in You Can Call Me Bill, an unexpectedly contemplative documentary less about the Star Trek icon’s long and sustaining career than a reaction to his 11-minute commercial trip into space he took in October 2021. (Shatner also is the oldest person to travel into space.) But perhaps William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill should not come as surprise give it hails from Alexandre O. Philippe, the visionary responsible for such erudite film-focused documentaries as 78/52, Memory: The Origin of Alien, and Lynch/Oz. If Shatner wanted to leave us a conventional examination of his life and career, he would have sat down with Kevin Smith. Instead, Philippe finds Shatner in a meditative mood. The actor—who turned 92 years old a week after the SXSW world premiere of You Can Call Me Bill—is more interested in discussing his place in the universe and his intriguing plans for when he dies than recalling pivotal moments in his career. While much of this may come across as a stream of consciousness, Shatner’s philosophical and metaphysical thoughts and observations are delivered with candor, clarity, and authority. Of course, Shatner is an actor who knows how to sell himself to a devoted, captive audience. And, wearing an unbutton black dress shirt, Shatner is very much in his comfort zone as he takes questions in seated on a sound stage. But Shatner’s reflections on his acting techniques, his mortality, and his relationship to animals and the environment seem to come from a place of truth. And he will you hanging on every word in his Shatnerian manner. (One funny moment finds Shatner claiming he does not hear himself when others do their best impression of the actor.) When he does talk about his career, he does with pride and without apology. The secret to his success, he observes, is the curiosity he possesses as a man and an actor, which he adds is also a way for him to nurture his inner child. His thoughts on Star Trek’s Captain Kirk are measured and wistful, in especially in regards to how he played Kirk’s death in the 1994 film Generations. An anecdote about Boston Legal character of Denny Crane ends with a terrific payoff. Shatner delivery of this anecdote very much comes to mind when later in the documentary he explains his methodical approach to comedy. The only moment in You Can Call Me Bill that could be dismissed as disingenuous comes when Shatner declares he has done nothing as an actor to merit any lifetime awards. “If I win any award, it’s for taking care of my inner child,” he says. Despite Philippe’s approach to his subject, You Can Call Me Bill unfolds as a highly quotable look back at a career that few actors can claim to have enjoyed and a life lived with curiosity by a man in his twilight years. “What’s you legacy?” Shatner asks at the end of the interview as he discusses what he wants does with his body after he dies (no spoilers here). You Can Call Me Bill has the potential to be refined Shatner’s legacy. Whether it does or hinges on loyal fans and casual audiences looking beyond the captain standing on the bridge of the USS Enterprise and to see the actor wearing his uniform. Robert Sims Posted: March 25, 2023. Web sites: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2023/films/2081801 https://join.legionm.com/william-shatner-documentary/ |
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