I Am Heath Ledger (2017)

the audience applauded

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I'm not too familiar with Heath's movies, the only one I've seen with him in it was "The Dark Knight", but I've always been curious about other things he did in his very short life. This documentary is great, it shows the life of someone very full of energy and passion from the people who knew him best. It's sad how someone with that much heart, and soul, and creativity had to go out so early, but he left a great legacy behind. I'm also glad it showed other movies Heath had been a part of, instead of just his last one. It's inspiring at one end, but sad on the other. It does what it was made for, invoke emotion and celebrate someone who filled so many people with happiness.R.I.P. Heath Ledger

Those are the main 3 feelings I experienced when watching it. And at the end I asked myself "How did he do it?". When you hear about a biography or a documentary, the trick that helps you to decide if it's worth watching is answering the question "Does the subject feels interesting?". If you have no idea who is the subject of this movie then just spend an hour and half watching it, if you have then you choose. Most times a movie can't capture a person fully, films have limits, but in this case it captures enough of his energy to mesmerize. "I am Heath Ledger" is worth the time.

I believe with this piece of work, we finally have taken off heaths mask that he portrayed himself as the Joker. We now see a side to heath that the world had to see. I believe it leaves the light on who he was as a artist and just how he was able to tackle and perfect not only the joker in dark knight, but also how he was a father, a friend loved by many and a creative individual who shocked the 21st century with what method acting was really about. The devastating and sudden death that rocked the world just around ten years ago had a huge impact on many. I found this project as an interesting and insightful one. Right from the beginning there is close personal creative genius from this guy. If you think Heath ledger-the actor? Incorrect. The love of film and photography is evident throughout, along with home videos of heath turning the camera on himself and friends. Footage of Heath acting along the best actors in the business, we see the humanity in Heath and just how he was human, he did suffer from the constant overwhelming fame, and in my opinion enjoyed his work rather than his benefits from it. Creating film was heaths love. Also we see a insight into how heath found his wife and love in his tender years that he did live. I believe this documentary went to a place that needed to be searched when we think about the guy that was Heath Ledger. Heath was a guy who lived life to the fullest and never really took a break because of his love for film. Alongside Dean, Brando and Day-Lewis, Heath Ledger was an iconic method actor, that held qualities of a rare breed and should be a image for young actors today. The ethos of this entire documentary holds this idea I believe.

Greetings again from the darkness. Lao Tzu wrote "The flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long". Though the math might be a bit off, that phrase aptly describes the too-brief life and career of shooting star Heath Ledger. As a 20 year old from Australia, his talent seemed to leap from the screen in 1999's 10 Things I Hate About You. As his popularity soared, so did his commitment to avoid being typecast as the charming and handsome love interest by the desperate directors of every upcoming rom-com project.It seems inconceivable (that word means what you think it means) that Mr. Ledger only made 15 more movies before an overdose killed him in 2008 (at age 28). Adrian Buiterhuis and Derik Murray co-direct this portrait of the man, the artist, the friend, the father. We see the young Heath, nearly always with camera in hand, flouncing about with his buddies as he seeks his next adventure. The home videos and photos fill the screen with luminosity that we recognize from his movies … the camera loved his face, and he seemed to love everything about filmmaking.Interviews, often the bane of biographical documentaries, provide a real sense of the admiration and love that Ledger attracted. His father, mother, sister, childhood Aussie friends, agent Steve Alexander, former lover Naomi Watts, and close friend Ben Harper pay tribute not just to the star who burned out too soon, but also the warm-hearted man they all connected with.The film walks us through some of his key movies: his chance to work with his acting idol Mel Gibson in The Patriot, A Knight's Tale, his devastating performance in Monster's Ball, The Four Feathers, Ned Kelly, reminiscing with Catherine Hardwicke on Lords of Dogstown, his stunning turn in Brokeback Mountain, and his final movie The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus with his beloved director Terry Gilliam. Of course, there is also a full segment on his most famous (and his own personal favorite) role as The Joker (a guy with a plan) in The Dark Knight. The role not only won Ledger a posthumous Oscar, it became the most talked about film performance in years.Even more interesting than the recollections from the various movie sets are the bits and pieces we get of Ledger as guy sharing the journey with his buddies, approaching master status as a chess player, as an artist dedicated to his craft, or as a photographer honing his style (in music videos) in what surely would have been an intriguing path as a director. Director Ang Lee brings us closer to understanding what we have missed out on in regards to Ledger as an artist, and with actress Michelle Williams, the mother of his daughter Matilda, choosing not to participate in the film, we still have the distance between fan and man that allows for due respect.