This 75 minute insightful look into the early career of Mike Nichols shows his stage work (as an actor and director), and key films that charted his future as a major director in films (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate) is simple in form (he sits on a stage opposite interviewer, director-of-the-theater, Jack O'Brien, overlooking an audience) but offers a chance to hear from a reflective, introspective mind before his unfortunate death in 2014. Talking about Walter Matthau's difficulties with Art Carnie during the stage production of The Odd Couple, his first major stage production of Barefoot in the Park (which opened with a young Robert Redford in one of the ensemble roles), how the casting process and first directing gig come about in Virginia Woolf, and how Nichols was inspired to use Simon and Garfunkel's music for The Graduate all provide some fascinating tidbits (obviously just a small appetizer, but a nutritious one just the same) fans of the director might just find to their liking. It is not a glamorous doc, mind you, but Nichols seems quite comfortable speaking candidly with O'Brien, and the two have an obvious respect for one another that shows.
Review of Becoming Mike Nichols
