Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

Robert B. Weide's 2021 documentary is about the writer Kurt Vonnegut and was thirty-three years in the making. Weide wrote to Vonnegut in 1982; the two became friends afterwards, and the film became both a portrait and the record of that friendship. What is most interesting is that the director does not hide his own presence: what it does to a film for an admirer to come this close to his subject is discussed directly. Vonnegut's captivity during the bombing of Dresden and his years of being unable to write about it are at the centre. The problems in his family relationships are related without softening. It runs long and the structure at times spreads out. Who it's for: readers of Vonnegut and viewers who like portraits of writers. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a biography at a distance, or uncomfortable with a director writing himself into the story.