Roger Ebert often paraphrased what his onscreen sparring partner Gene Siskel said about films he didn’t enjoy: Wouldn’t it have been better to watch a documentary about the same actors having lunch together? It’s a thought experiment that might come to mind watching “Sportin’ Life,” a rambling, hour-long documentary directed by Abel Ferrara.
These days, Ferrara’s fiction films rarely go far beyond the festival circuit, even those starring his friend and frequent collaborator Willem Dafoe.
It’s been some time since the likes of “Bad Lieutenant” and “King of New York” reached a wider audience.
But .Most of the documentary was shot while Ferrara was promoting his last film with Dafoe, “Siberia,” at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
Not that he bothers to explain that with anything as commonplace as captions or voiceovers.
All the film offers is the chance to hang out with Ferrara for a while,
Read full article