Synopsis: After 7 years sober, Charlie Sheen candidly discusses his rise to fame and public downfall, joined by family and friends who share untold stories of his journey through stardom, struggles, and redemption.
Review: Charlie Sheen is an actor who defies categorization. Son of acclaimed actor Martin Sheen and sibling to Brat Pack icon Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen has had a diverse career starring in acclaimed films like Wall Street and Platoon, comedy classics like Hot Shots!, and two massively popular television sitcoms in Spin City and Two and a Half Men. He spent his youth as one of the hottest actors in Hollywood and partied with Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp before succumbing to addiction multiple times. Charlie Sheen hit a low point in his life when he delivered a rambling, incoherent interview where “winning” and “tiger blood” became meme catchphrases. aka Charlie Sheen debuted on Netflix this week, which also saw the publication of the actor’s memoir, providing audiences with an open look at the ups and downs of his career and life through firsthand accounts, archival footage, and interviews with those closest to him.
While the documentary is split into two parts (cheekily titled “Part One” and “Part Deux”) that clock in at about ninety minutes each, the film is divided into three sections called “Partying”, “Partying with Problems”, and “Just Problems”. Part one follows Charlie’s childhood in Santa Monica, where he made films and emulated his father, Martin Sheen. Through these time capsule film clips, we get glimpses of friends George Clooney, Chris, Sean Penn, and more. We also learn about Charlie’s first role in Grizzly II, which cost him the lead in The Karate Kid, followed by his game-changing cameo in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Across ninety-eight minutes, Charlie chronicles his early addictions, his brush with Michael Jordan, and his eventual legal issues with Heidi Fleiss through his overdose that led to his extended stay in rehab in 1998. It is a lot to take in with Charlie giving a sober, first-hand reflection on the three decades of his life and interviews with his older brother, Ramon, and friends Jon Cryer, Chris Tucker, Sean Penn, and more. Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez declined to participate in aka Charlie Sheen.
Part Deux is comprised entirely of the third section, “Just Problems,” and begins with Charlie leaving rehab and getting a chance at acting again when he took over the lead role on Spin City. The documentary then interviews Denise Richards as she discusses her relationship with Charlie and what really happened behind the scenes, and it’s not just a rehash of tabloid fodder we all consumed over the last twenty years. Charlie’s third wife, Brooke Mueller, also participated in interviews that followed through Sheen’s eventual firing from Two and a Half Men and the prevailing Tiger Blood era, as well as the revelation of his HIV diagnosis. What is noticeable in both episodes of the documentary is the absence of those who did not participate in interviews as much as those who did. Everyone speaks highly of Sheen and candidly about his struggles, including Sheen himself, with the eventual point in the documentary that brings us to today, allowing us to see Sheen in a different lens than we have in quite some time.
Charlie Sheen has proven to be an unreliable narrator for the better part of the 2000s, making his participation in aka Charlie Sheen a bit contentious. Yes, Sheen’s sharing of never-before-heard stories about his life, including putting ice cubes in his rectum to stay awake, as well as his first-hand account of what doing drugs felt like in the moment, are heartbreaking as much as they are fascinating; it is the lack of actual depth to his remorse that is noticeable. Sheen is fully communicative and sober in his interviews for the film, which is the opposite of what he showed the public during the worst parts of the last decade. While Sheen has achieved sobriety in the past and relapsed hard, all of which are discussed during the film, it is notable that he is approaching a decade of sobriety, which is the longest span he has been clean in his life. This film and his memoir indicate improvement, but it is hard to see this film without feeling that Sheen is somewhat flippant about the depth of what his actions have done to those around him.
Director Andrew Renzi has helmed the documentaries Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House, The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand To Die For, and Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?, but this is his first project with this much direct access to the central subject of the film. Andrew Renzi directs, aka Charlie Sheen, a collection of interviews with Charlie interspersed with an overabundance of archive footage from the actor’s films, media appearances, courtroom dramas, and social media posts. Much of this footage feels unnecessary and a bit like padding to extend the documentary’s running time. What is most intriguing about aka Charlie Sheen is the childhood movies made with friends and family, illustrating more about Charlie’s early life than his memory can provide.
aka Charlie Sheen is an infinitely watchable look at the span of the actor’s career and provides several nuggets of Hollywood lore that were not previously known, while also giving audiences a glimpse into the truth of one of the most famous meltdowns in celebrity history. I had hoped that aka Charlie Sheen would have delivered on the promise of truly being a warts-and-all exercise for Charlie Sheen. Still, it skirts many of the more controversial periods in the actor’s life without digging into whether he is apologetic or remorseful beyond surface-level apologies. aka Charlie Sheen is long on clips and footage that could have been truncated to deliver a more streamlined documentary experience. Still, seeing an iconic actor finally looking better than he has in a long time is good.
aka Charlie Sheen is now streaming on Netflix.
Source:
JoBlo.com
