Release Date: April 24 (limited)
Tyson is surprisingly reflective and has a peculiar command of idioms, for example, saying he owes his success to “the art of skulduggery,” a skill he later admits was underutilized in his first marriage. I guess he means he could’ve used his art to hide indiscretions, but that was the old Tyson. In Behind the Music fashion, he’s turned his life around so that, nowadays, his atrocious view of women leaks out only occasionally. He doesn’t know where he got gonorrhea but it must have been “from a prostitute or a very filthy young lady,” he explains, and Toback doesn’t point out the irony. Sometimes there’s no need.
In a new documentary, Mike Tyson talks for an hour and a half, and filmmaker James Toback presents no contrary points of view, which might seem grossly skewed—except that Tyson, like many colorful, verbose characters, reveals more than he realizes when his interviewer lets him chatter. The ear-biting boxer and convicted rapist admits only minor mistakes in his life, and even though Toback is never heard, the film feels like a silent, automatic critique.