Popular reviews

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  Review by James Carrigy ★★★½

  I think that sometimes the most compelling pieces of documentary cinema aren’t necessarily the “best made” or even the most impartial. This does offer some really legitimately valuable insights into the radical queer art produced in San Francisco in the 1960’s and 70’s, but there’s also some morbid fascination to be had in this troubled and unhinged force fully immersing himself in the performative legacy of his uncle, and going mad trying to unspool the ultimately unsolvable cause of his killing. Exactly the kind of cheap and off the cuff oddity you’d expect from a Ferrara produced documentary.

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  Review by Zā ★★ 3

  Robert Opel was a fascinating person, but this documentary doesn't do him justice. Especially since his story could have been told in a more condensed, impactful way. His nephew works way too hard to talk about himself and then weird reenactment videos happen.

  Also, I was weirdly surprised by all the dicks in this, but it's a documentary about a streaker so why did that catch me off guard??

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  Review by Wayne ★★

  The first part of this film works as an interesting overview of the subject, gay rights in America and gay art seen through the lens of San Francisco in the 70s. It misses an opportunity to muse even briefly on the trend of streaking in the 70s which certainly wasn't confined to the 1974 Academy Awards. Later unfortunately it falls apart in the second half as it attempts to address the murder of Robert Opel with only a small amount of information and via well intentioned but cringeworthy reenactments.

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  Review by Brian Dahlvig ★★½

  Good information, annoying execution.

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  Review by John Tyler ★★★

  He streaked at the 1974 Oscars and was not only NOT apprehended, but was invited backstage to be interviewed by the press like he won a damn Oscar and then went on to be guest on The Mike Douglas Show, sitting next to Bea Arthur??? Genius.

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  Review by joelnox ★★½

  Has some interesting info about Robert Opel's life and death but the structure is very fragmented even for a documentary.

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  Review by Darren Stein ★★★

  Watched this gem about a Robert Opel’s nephew attempting to unearth the truth about his Beloved Uncle’s murder on Kanopy. A fascinating peek into the San Francisco gay counterculture is the 70s. Really affecting.

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  Review by Michael_Elliott ★½

  When actor David Niven hit the stage at the 1974 Oscar telecast he had no way of knowing he was about to be involve in a story that continues to be talked about today. While at the stage, a streaker ran out and made headlines around the world. That man, Robert Opel, is the focus of this documentary, which was made by his nephew.

  This documentary started off rather good as we get to hear about the infamous Oscar moment and we get to see some archival interviews that Opel gave during the aftermath. Sadly, the film quickly gets boring and eventually completely comes apart, which is really too bad.

  I think the biggest issue with the film is that…

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  Review by friedgreengibbs ★½

  Robert Oppel is no Robert Opel. This started as a really intriguing look at an Oscar trivia footnote - the media hysteria that followed, an inside look at the gay art world of his time, and his politics. But his nephew turned this into way too much of a vanity project, not only with cringeworthy re-enactments of lost projects but with rambling conspiracy theories about Opel’s murder. This film flew off the rails pretty fast, and I don’t think it’s in the artsy way the filmmaker intended. Opel’s work may have been crass (and tasteless to some), but this was an artless kind of crass. Would love to see a better doc put out there about Opel someday.

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  Review by Christopher Parasite ★★★★

  Really informative documentary about Robert Opel. 
  Great footage of the Cockettes and Divine. A lot of insight on the gay art scene in the 70’s, a ton of footage of Opel doing Opel things that you probably won’t see anywhere else. But that all being said, at times it felt like the director, Robert Oppel, Opel’s nephew, was using this film to get his own “art” out there.
  There’s a lot of random scenes of him doing performance art style things that really just didn’t need to be in the documentary. They added to it though. But there’s also skits and stuff that he added to cover up for historical stuff that footage didn’t exist for. It had a “punk”…