My Father and The Man In Black
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Metascore
57

Mixed or average reviews - based on 13 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: Jonathan Holiff’s new documentary is more than just another addition to the bottomless pit of archival footage dedicated to legend, man, myth and flawed mortal that was Johnny Cash. This film is a universal and troubling tale of the very real walls that parents can build around themselves (J(Jonathan's father, Saul Holiff, was Cash's manager in the 1960s and 70s). Refreshingly, My Father and the Man In Black does not slip into the realm of tabloid. It’s an intense personal adventure with universal themes and appeal that just happens to feature one of 20th-century music’s great icons. [New Chapter Productions]
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Alan Scherstuhl
    Oct 2, 2012
    90
    As Cash might say, it has the heart, and it has the blood, and by the time childhood chatter is played back again, feeling is soaked through it like the sweat in Cash's guitar strap.
  2. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    Sep 13, 2013
    75
    You get a strong whiff of what it must have been like to be Johnny Cash, or his exasperated manager, from this film. It would make a good companion piece to “Walk the Line.”
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    Sep 5, 2013
    70
    In the end, despite the clunky mix of narrative formats, My Father and the Man in Black makes for an illuminating alternate history of sorts to the Hollywoodized version of Cash's ascendancy in "Walk the Line."
  4. The Guardian
    Reviewed by: Andrew Pulver
    Sep 4, 2013
    60
    For Cash devotees who want a hitherto-hidden perspective on their man, though, this is invaluable viewing.
  5. Empire
    Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    Sep 4, 2013
    60
    Slightly jerry-built reconstructions detract from an intriguing film with a unique angle on the country legend.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    Sep 4, 2013
    60
    Holiff Sr.’s extensive audio diaries and taped phone conversations with Cash give authentic voice to the film’s otherwise stodgy re-creations of this true odd couple’s stormy relationship.
  7. The Telegraph
    Reviewed by: Robbie Collin
    Aug 3, 2013
    40
    Holiff assembled this memoir from his father’s papers and audio diary, although the portrait of Cash that emerges is that of a pill-popping religious nut, and there is next to no insight into his music or creative process.

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