dear_prudence Joan Didion was born in 1934, the same year as Gloria Steinham. They both intrigue me as women writers who earned a living as outsiders--reporters--investigating gender, class, community, and the seismic shifts of the larger cultural world from refreshingly different perspectives.I confess I didn't know much about Didion's personal life--her famous in-laws, her famous friends--and the documentary flicks out photographs, interviews, and archival footage that are a delight to discover. The film gives you a peek into the intimate life of an intriguing person who worked hard to stay hidden, even though her books are so personal. There is a detachment she employed as a writer to report back to us. The documentary strips away some of the distance.I found the interviews with Dunne fascinating. Her answers surprised me. I loved seeing how the thread of her life weaved through politics, subcultures, music, film, and her own family. And kudos to Griffin Dunne (and several members of her extended family) for putting this together right now. A reflection worthy of your time.

hwhaley2001-530-818398 This film is a tribute to Ms. Didion, who was an amazing writer, and her writings were incredible that they were so easy to read and understand. Griffin Dunne does a fantastic job with this. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this film and how much it made me think and maybe tear up a bit. She was an amazing woman whose writings were concise and she was completely unafraid to relate the truth, no matter how unpleasant or downright ugly - or how painful. We have all lost loved ones, children sometimes and certainly spouses, and even innocence in the political and social systems - she really was able to convey the feelings - the reality of loosing major parts of your life and to still survive. This is a wonderful film, and encompasses more than just a tribute to a wonderful Aunt. She is an amazing person.

bettycjung 10/28/17. Oh my, what if Griffin Dunne didn't do this biopic when he did? Didion is now in her early 80s and it's amazing why there wasn't one done before this one. Such a celebrated writer and screenwriter finally got what she deserved. While well-known her private life was filled with tragedy, from the sudden death of her husband and early death of her only daughter at 39. Her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, is perhaps the best book ever about how those left behind deal with the death of a loved one. That book and this movie are worth catching.

moonspinner55 Writer Joan Didion's distant relatives crossed the frontier to the Promised Land (California), but not before traveling some stretch of the journey with the doomed Donner party, who separated from the Didions to cross uncharted terrain. Preparing for disaster is something Didion was taught at a young age, knew with certainty as an adult, and then maybe forgot about and had to learn again in 2003 when her adopted daughter, Quintana, became sick and was hospitalized just before Didion's husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, died of a heart attack. This stylishly-presented documentary on Didion's life, produced and directed by Didion's nephew, Griffin Dunne, promises to be a heady spread for Netflix and, indeed, we get a thorough blueprint of Joan Didion's long and winding journey. Tracing the author's path from University of California, Berkeley graduate to Vogue magazine writer in New York City in the 1950s, to author of her first novel, "Run, River" in 1963, to becoming Dunne's wife, to their move to Southern California in 1965 and adopting a baby, we get a sense of Didion's spirit as she speaks but nothing much in the way of her personality. What Griffin Dunne extracts from his subject in a recent interview is lovely frosting--listening to Joan and watching her expressive hands reaching out, pell-mell, in dramatic emphasis--but there isn't a substantial, emotional base underneath this. Vintage interview footage of Didion from cable shows and "60 Minutes" actually tell us more about Joan than what we're getting from Griffin Dunne. Interviews with friends and fellow writers add a dash of color, but no insight (actor Harrison Ford, Didion's carpenter in the early '70s, sits down just long enough to tell us how nice Dunne and Didion were to he and his family). Joan's path in life led her back to New York City, where she turned her 2005 book about grieving, "The Year of Magical Thinking", into a Broadway play starring Vanessa Redgrave. It helps to close the film on a warm note, though interested parties will learn far more about Didion just by reading one of her books--or, if pressed for time, her Wikipedia page. **1/2 from ****