The Outsider (2005)

Nicholas Jarecki follows director James Toback on the 12-day shoot of his thriller, "When Will I Be Loved" -- a movie made without a script or distribution deal. The Outsider, a feature-length documentary from first-time writer/director Jarecki, is a film about film, specifically, the power of film to create, to move, and to endure. It follows one of America’s most obsessive and intriguing filmmakers, James Toback, writer/director of 11 movies including: Two Girls and a Guy, Black and White, The Gambler, Fingers, Bugsy, and the upcoming When Will I Be Loved, starring Neve Campbell. Filmed over an 8-month period, The Outsider follows Toback through all phases of the making of his new film (shooting, editing, scoring, and release). The movie develops through frank conversations with him about his obsessions (gambling, drinking, drugs, and sexual exploration) and how they manifest themselves in his films by interweaving clips from all of his movies. The film also contains candid, revealing conversations about film and life with Toback’s collaborators including: Woody Allen, Robert Downey, Jr., Mike Tyson, Harvey Keitel, Neve Campbell, Norman Mailer, Brooke Shields, Barry Levinson, Jim Brown, Robert Towne, Brett Ratner, Roger Ebert, Bridget Hall, Damon Dash, Woody Harrelson, Bijou Phillips, Jeff Berg, Dominic Chianese, and Power from Wu-Tang Clan. The result is a surprising and highly entertaining examination of an industry that is changing and a man struggling against great odds to define a place within it. George Bernard Shaw observed: “The reasonable man adapts himself to fit the world around him. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to fit himself. Therefore all progress is made by unreasonable men.” James Toback is an unreasonable man; as film lovers, we’re much the better for it.