Not a bomb, a…
I just got HBO back specifically so I could watch The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which has been getting rapturous reviews. Case in point:
“The riddle of narcissism is this: While narcissists live for admiration and adoration, while they depend on companionship and hate to be alone, while they can pull others into the grandiose worlds they create with their imaginations, they tend to want to escape all expectations and responsibilities in life, seeking out an external numbness to match the numbness they feel for others.”
“Rarely do…creative indulgences bring so much to a character and a story, but these little digressions are absolutely at home in this story – in fact, it’s impossible to imagine doing justice to Sellers’ dizzying, spontaneous inner world without them. While some might complain that the story does little to shed light on the sources of Sellers’ pathologies, narcissism is incredibly difficult to trace back to root causes, and really, haven’t we seen enough of demonic parental caricatures, stuck in place to account for behaviors that are far too inconsistent and unusual to be summed up neatly? Instead, our experience of Sellers is just as bewitching and as melancholy and as inexplicable as it must’ve been for those who knew him well. From the lively soundtrack to the eye-catching, beautiful sets to the amazing cast, “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers” expertly and imaginatively captures the joyful, horrible, fantastical world of a unique comic genius who was anything but simple and boring.”
