Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) is a documentary about the life and work of the enigmatic folk rock singer-songwriter, Harry Nilsson, told by three dozen of Nilsson's friends, colleagues and extended family.
The point of it is not, in the end, to explain him or solve the mystery of his life, but rather to spend time in his company and understand why he is someone to be missed.
ColeSmithey.com
August 29, 2010
...does something that few such films accomplish: it allows the audience to feel as though they have walked a mile in a man's shoes.
John Sheinfeld's portrait revisits the man, the artist and the reputation, with a wealth of TV performance clips and interviews with friends, family and colleagues...
Sticking closely to the archival footage and talking-heads formula, it's the quality of the former and the sense of personal involvement in the latter that elevates the film above the run-of-the-mill rockumentary.
On the one hand, the film is a cautionary too-much-too-soon story that was a cliché even before what Casey Kasem refers to as the Rock Era; on the other hand, it also has enough touching, amusing and/or appalling episodes to make it compulsively watchable
AV Club
September 09, 2010
There's been so little written about Nilsson or archiving of his work that Who Is Harry Nilsson is a godsend just for bringing together so much rare footage.
