After 27 years in the making, Dreams will inspire creative types

Science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison qualifies as an ideal subject for a documentary. But given his notoriously prickly personality, it couldn’t have been easy to put together this terrific profile. No wonder it took 27 years to complete. Erik Nelson should be commended for his perseverance as well as the finished product. Along with Ellison aficionados and anyone steeped in speculative fiction, Dreams With Sharp Teeth will inspire all writers, anyone concerned with intellectual property rights and every independent-minded grouch, whether or not he gives a fig for art or has a creative bone in his body.

Truculent and funny, coarse and curmudgeonly, Ellison possesses a gift for rabblerousing and storytelling, which, in his keen mind, amounts to the same thing. The portrait includes the standard biographical information, career outline and testimonials. Pal Robin Williams is seen inside Ellison’s kitschy Los Angeles home, called “The Lost Aztec Temple of Mars,” as well as during a talking-head interview. Two acolytes—screenwriter Josh Olson and author Neil Gaiman—report from deep inside Ellison’s personal orbit. Village Voice cultural critic Carol Cooper attests to Ellison’s professional stature and influence.

By far, the best parts of the movie are when we watch and listen to Ellison himself —whether commenting on his childhood, in clips from talk shows, or as he’s tooling around LA, working at his desk or giving dramatic readings of passages from his many books, short stories and teleplays. A highlight is his tirade about how writers are underappreciated and are taken advantage of when it comes to money. Insisting that writing is hard work that deserves adequate compensation as much as any other type of labor, Ellison demands to get paid for his efforts and isn’t shy about using the courts to get satisfaction. (Incidentally, this snippet from the movie is already a hit on YouTube.)

It’s a challenge for any film—even one oxymoronically described as a “literary documentary” as this is—to convey the nature of written works. The Corona typeface Nelson uses for his title cards notwithstanding, Dreams With Sharp Teeth—which comes from the title of a three-volume collection of Ellison’s works—is not especially writerly or graphic in its root sense. Ellison’s vivid use and love of language are evident, but by dint of his dominating personality and flair for being a performance artist, the film is more likely to send you to his TV and radio appearances and nonfiction rants than to his fictional works. Moreover, because the sci-fi and fantasy genres readily lend themselves to visual representation and Ellison was so involved in television during the 1960s and 1970s, watching episodes of the Outer Limits, Star Trek and the many other shows he had a hand in seems a good way to assess his impact. Without taking away from his place in the literary pantheon alongside Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut, one could argue he’s had as much influence on people working in the cinematic arts as he has other writers.

In addition to raising questions about how or whether our society values writers, Dreams With Sharp Teeth implicitly asks, how do writers value themselves? A person’s insecurities are often the most fascinating thing about them, and Ellison is no exception. Nelson does an excellent job of allowing Ellison to analyze himself and vent on his strengths and weakness. Though not in so many words, in philosophical moments, he admits he’s as worried about his artistic legacy as he is concerned with getting paid. The movie helps secure that legacy and does Ellison and his works justice by transmitting his belief that confrontation leads to progress—that the clash of ideas, whether in fiction or nonfiction, art or life, is absolutely necessary for human survival. Call it Ellison’s law of intelligent kvetching.

Distributor: Film Forum
Director/Producer: Erik Nelson
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Not rated
Running time: 96 min.
Release date: June 4 ltd.