Sundance continues its streak of providing its core audience with programming that is both thought-provoking, intelligent and entertaining all at the same time, while presenting the theme of movies and subversiveness Robert Redford sought to doing when he created Sundance. In the six part documentary series “Iconoclasts”, celebrities don’t interview celebrities, in “Iconoclasts”, a person who has made an influence in the entertainment, art, or political industry are able to profile their hero, or personal hero whom they admire and not only interview them, but we get a glimpse in to that artist or icon, if you will, and what they’re so used to doing that has garnered them such a prolific reputation.
It’s Sundance’s “Dinner for Five” mixed with “My Dinner with Andre” as the two subjects perform activities while talking over their own business and explaining admiration towards each other. Sure, it’s self-congratulatory, but it’s utterly fascinating to watch, and the documentary is done with so much tastefulness and class, it was hard to turn away while watching. You not only gain insight in to the subject being profiled, but in to both subjects whom always seem to have some sort of connection both professionally and personality-wise. The first two episodes are particularly fascinating, which I was given a chance to watch, and I must say my expectations were more than met with such good writing and many times engrossing conversation between both people. In the entertaining first episode, prolific character actor Samuel L. Jackson and legendary retired basketball player Bill Russell get to have many back and forth’s together, while examining each other’s careers.
Jackson is always humble towards Russell and praises him without seeming desperate, and it’s often a very amusing series of interviews since Russell is often very witty and humble as well. He barely bats an eye at all his shelves of awards in his home, and often prefers to praise Jackson while Jackson tries to veer the conversation back to Russell. In one truly defining example of Russell’s humility, Jackson awaits him in his back yard and notices he has no basket ball hoop. He asks “Where’s the hoop? You don’t have a hoop you set up in the backyard?” to which Russell asks, “Why?” Jackson explains, “You ever want to play basketball again to see if you still got it?” to which Russell replies, “No, because I don’t.” It’s often witty exchanges like that that make “Iconoclasts” a truly good watch above all the other shows that profile actors including the now utterly ridiculous “Inside the Actor’s Studio”.
Everything is tasteful and sophisticated here, and the two subjects never attempt to form existential conversations, it’s just two people displaying admiration toward one another. Jackson and Russell play golf, they have dinner with Russell’s family, and gain basic insight in to their own lives while realizing their own connection. It’s a great beginning episode to what will hopefully be a great series. What I found pleasing about this was that it wasn’t only movie stars profiling other movie stars, it’s artists profiling artists. It’s artists attempting to expose their own influences to the audience be it personal or professional. In the second engrossing episode, Gucci designer Tom Ford profiles Jeff Koons, the famous artist whose works of surrealist oddities have made him so famous.
The second one is truly fascinating as we manage to get a glimpse in to the very unique and so outlandish work of Koons, whose art is amazing with large balloon animals, and often pop culture kitsch, and its fun to learn much of his art derived from circumstance and immense influence. He never denies using his childhood influences as inspiration instead of waxing philosophical with some fake anecdote. He’s very Warholian in his style, and Ford exposes that to the audience. It’s my hope that the show doesn’t veer off from artists profiling other artists and instead of going for a cheap plug posing as a profiling, go for the truly sophisticated bits of interviews that really kept me watching. What you can look forward to in the coming weeks is Renee Zellweger on Christiane Amanpour, Mario Batali on Michael Stipe, and Sundance founder and environmentalist Robert Redford profiling best friend, activist and anthropologist Paul Newman, now THAT’s the one I’ll be waiting for.