Timothy Leary was always considered a controversial figure, even by many within the 1960s/'70s counterculture. The "Jet-Set Rebel Turned FBI Informant" role that Leary and Joanna Harcourt-Smith acted out arouses all kinds of suspicions, not least among Harcourt-Smith herself.
Coming after, and as a direct result of, the director's excellent mini-series Wormwood, I was expecting Errol Morris to dig deep and come up with some juicy revelations. Something that would place Leary's hi-jinks and subsequent betrayal in a whole new light, in the same way that Wormwood did in its exposé of the CIA's role in the death of Frank Olson. Harcourt-Smith even explicitly asks for Morris to do so in the film.
But no, we get little more than a narcissistic socialite's quasi-naive retelling of her infatuation with her acid guru. If you need yet another reason to dislike Baby Boomers, then this is the documentary for you. Any allegations concerning Leary and various members of his entourage get a brief mention at best, without being held up to investigative scrutiny. Morris seems more interested in Leary's yellow Porsche.
Morris should have got some other talking heads to counterbalance Harcourt-Smith's one-sided narrative, which at times is rather dubious to say the least. The only addition we get is some archive footage and cliché psychedelic graphics. This is Morris at his laziest.
There is still a definitive warts-'n'-all story to be told about Leary, because this ain't it.
Coming after, and as a direct result of, the director's excellent mini-series Wormwood, I was expecting Errol Morris to dig deep and come up with some juicy revelations. Something that would place Leary's hi-jinks and subsequent betrayal in a whole new light, in the same way that Wormwood did in its exposé of the CIA's role in the death of Frank Olson. Harcourt-Smith even explicitly asks for Morris to do so in the film.
But no, we get little more than a narcissistic socialite's quasi-naive retelling of her infatuation with her acid guru. If you need yet another reason to dislike Baby Boomers, then this is the documentary for you. Any allegations concerning Leary and various members of his entourage get a brief mention at best, without being held up to investigative scrutiny. Morris seems more interested in Leary's yellow Porsche.
Morris should have got some other talking heads to counterbalance Harcourt-Smith's one-sided narrative, which at times is rather dubious to say the least. The only addition we get is some archive footage and cliché psychedelic graphics. This is Morris at his laziest.
There is still a definitive warts-'n'-all story to be told about Leary, because this ain't it.