Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

Top positive review

Hubert Selby, Jr. : Ten Times More Life-Affirming Than Anything Authored By Mitch Albom

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 27, 2007

Most people probably know Selby through the (justly-acclaimed) film versions of his two most famous novels, LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. But the excellence of these two movies will never replace the jaw-droppingly-amazing achievements of Selby's prose -- as this documentary ably and evocatively proves. Fearless, passionate, and wildly experimental (the very title of this documentary is a reference to Selby's completely original style of punctuation/grammar), Selby -- somewhat surprisingly -- was also a writer who, while wallowing among the dregs of society and dredging up its truths, somehow emerges, at the end of the day, as the most life-affirming literary personage imaginable. It's an alchemy that was all Selby's own, and this documentary is a must-see for anyone and everyone intrigued by the intermingling of words, storytelling, and spirituality in our contemporary world.

8 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›

Sara

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 31, 2014

This is intriguing because the subject matter--Selby--is inherently fascinating. However, this is not a well made doc. It's rather slapdash, haphazard, leaves a lot of questions unanswered and even unasked. For rabid devotees only.

One person found this helpful

Sort by

Filter by

15 total ratings, 12 with reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

Tom Lavagnino

Hubert Selby, Jr. : Ten Times More Life-Affirming Than Anything Authored By Mitch Albom

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 27, 2007

Verified Purchase

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Barry Dorsey

Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow - Authentically presents THE SECRET

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 27, 2007

Verified Purchase

I saw this film in the theater and I couldn't wait to be able to purchase it on DVD. It would've been nice to have been able to meet Cubby Selby in person - the directors, Kenneth Shiffrin and Michael W. Dean, did more than deliver a film - they create an outlet for us all to spend a moment with this unsung artist.

The insight this movie gives into the world of Cubby Selby is pretty astonishing. I certainly wasn't expecting to be handed keys to his creative process while simultaneously being uplifted by the journey of this absolute spiritual being who was unapologetically human.

Cause for both tears and laughter... this film will touch your heart.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

arthur culbertson

Hubert Selby Jr. Documentary.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2016

Verified Purchase

Director Michael W. Dean really exposes the heart and soul of one of America's most brilliant dark and gritty authors. The film features some of the many actors, writers, musicians and brilliant minds who were inspired by Selby's genius. Narrated by Robert Downey Junior, this film is a must have for any documentary movie collection.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

linlip

Selby fans rejoice!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 2, 2009

Verified Purchase

This is an informative look inside one of the most talented but tortured writers of our time. If you're a fan of his books then this is a no brainer.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sara

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 31, 2014

Verified Purchase

One person found this helpful

Helpful

judye

It's today, and it's already better.....

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 14, 2014

Verified Purchase

This is the 4th copy of this DVD that I've purchased; I've loaned the others out over the past few years & not received them back. this is part of my life, & I need to have it near me.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

jawblown

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 16, 2014

Verified Purchase

good

Helpful

Kerry Walters

"A scream looking for a mouth..."

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 12, 2008

Hubert "Cappy" Selby, Jr. doesn't have the name recognition in the US that an author of his caliber deserves. One of the things "It/ll be Better Tomorrow"* tries to do is to suggest an explanation for this: that Selby's vision of American life was just too bleak for mainstream Americans to stomach. "America," as one of the film's interviewees remarks, "is the happiness machine. Americans don't want to believe that Selby's descriptions are accurate." Selby himself said that the American dream was all about "getting things," and his rage at what he saw as the hypocrisy of such a lifestyle was part of the reason he once described himself as "a scream looking for a mouth."

Selby was a Brooklyn kid who joined the Merchant Marines when he was 15 (during WWII), contracted tuberculosis, endured a four-year stint in hospitals and multiple surgeries, and suffered bad health for the rest of his life. Hospital morphine led to heroin and alcohol addition, which Selby finally kicked only at the age of 40. Even after the publication of his best and most lucrative novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn, his years of addiction reduced him at times to penury. So there were very personal reasons for his rage as well.

Selby's typewriter became the mouth through which he screamed. In his novels and short stories he created worlds in which alienation, grime, violence, frustrated love, and betrayal were given centerstage. As a longtime friend remarks in the film, Selby "takes you to a world you really don't want to be in. He makes you live there. It's claustrophobic." His books so shocked and outraged conventional sensibilities that they generated two obscenity trials. (Billy Graham especially went after Selby.) The more famous one, in England, was eventually won on appeal by John Mortimer of "Rumpole" fame, and established a landmark precedent in regards to freedom of expression.

"It/ll be Better Tomorrow" goes to great pains to claim that underneath all of the rage and bleakness of Selby's work was a great spirituality of hope (the word "spiritual" is used on numerous occasions throughout the film), a conviction that even though we go through the fire, we somehow usually manage to limp through to the other side. But it's not clear to me that the film defends this claim. Except for Selby's final and uneven novel, The Willow, there seems little evidence of hope or redemption in the worlds he creates. Characters generally end up where they began: in an exitless limbo.

And this suggests an additional reason why Selby isn't a better known author in the US: he's no more a fun read than, say, Beckett. His innovative style may inspire us, and his dark rendering of the American dream may sober us enough to prompt self-examination. But at the same time, most of us, if we're honest, would probably admit to feeling oppressed when reading him. This isn't a criticism so much as an observation. But it's an observation which the film, otherwise so insightful, refuses to make.
_________
* One of Selby's many punctuational idiosyncracies was a refusal to use apostrophes. Thus the "I/ll" rather than "I'll" in the film's title.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Drew Hunkins

Informative documentary of my favorite novelist

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 17, 2007

It had to be about 1991 when I finally came across an old dusty library copy of Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn; I had recently seen Uli Edel's excellent film adaptation and was always curious about the book. I promptly sat down and for the next four hours devoured Selby's classic. It's such a great work that I make it a point to re-read it at least once every few years.

When I lived in Greenwich Village in the mid 1990s everyone seemed crazy about the Beats, I'd mention Selby and a lot of them barely knew who he was. For me, Kerouac and the rest of them, though damn good at what they did, just don't match up to Selby's genius level. I recall I borrowed my copy of his book of short stories, Song of the Silent Snow, to a gal who lived in my building, after all these years I still haven't gotten it back.

It/ll Be Better Tomorrow gets into everything Selby, from his youth in Brooklyn, his days in the merchant Marine, the heroin addiction, the debilitating TB, his early attempts at writing, the life of penury, it's all here in detail. Interesting commentary touches on the development of his unique and certainly eccentric style that utilizes the ever present Selby /slash/ and different paragraph indentations. Readers who haven't read any of his books have no idea what in the hell that means, but once you read one of his works you'll realize that he doesn't always use regular punctuation and definitely has his own style of setting up words on paper. All one has to do is see a single paragraph of his writing and it's immediately identifiable.

A nice array of notables comment on Selby's life throughout the documentary. Arguably the closest writer to him presently, Richard Price, adds some interesting thoughts, while Ellen Burstyn, Henry Rollins, Amiri Baraka, and various actors and writers discuss his life and work. The best additions to the film are simply the stories provided from his boyhood pals in Brooklyn who surprisingly were able to stay in touch with him throughout his life.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

stoic

The Viewer Wants to Know More

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 13, 2009

Few novels hit the reader harder than Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He was that rarest of artists - an original. Selby's life was also interesting. He was a World War II veteran; he suffered from tuberculosis and drug addiction; his work was the subject of two obscenity trials; and he endured years of obscurity and poverty before a late-life renaissance brought him back to prominence.

The film "It'll Be Better Tomorrow" is very strong in certain respects. The filmmakers deserve credit for covering Selby's work and for allowing various artists (including Lou Reed, Henry Rollins, and Ellen Burstyn) to explain Selby's impact on their personal and artistic lives. The film also includes a large number of interviews with "Cubby" Selby, himself.

And yet, I left the film with a feeling that it could have been better. While the film explains Selby's art, what is missing here is the man. We get only a sketchy view of the chronology of Selby's life. Only at the very end of the film do we learn that he was married three times, had four children and twelve grandchildren. None of Selby's family members is in the film. Selby must have been a difficult father and husband, at least during the years when he was addicted to heroin.

I have the sense that many of the celebrities provided a picture of Selby as a public man, but that there must have been so much more beneath that veneer; such a limited view is inappropriate when discussing the life of a man who never flinched in his art.

It'll Be Better Tomorrow is worth a look. But I wanted to know more.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Need customer service? Click here

‹ See all details for Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

5 star		38%
4 star		33%
3 star		29%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

Top positive review

Top critical review

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

›

Customer reviews