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An auto-interview with the fantastically flaky Nick Nolte (interviewed by a TV journalist alter ego) amuses far more than you’d think: Nolte’s bemused knack for toying with interviewers is matched by his passion for performance. What should the gimmick here be called, one-on-one? Nick-on-Nick action? In making “Nick Nolte: No Exit,” director Tom Thurman is wise to stand aside. It’s not in the same league as James Toback allowing Mike Tyson to narrate the voices that ripple inside that man’s troubled mind, but it’s in that league. The frame falls away in the face of a wry and articulate man’s talky ramble, and appearances by other actors like Ben Stiller and Rosanna Arquette are mostly fun. “Nobody has ever asked me to be silent,” Nolte claims. Not when you’re this entertaining, no. With Jacqueline Bisset, Powers Boothe, F.X. Feeney, Barbara Hershey, Paul Mazursky, Mike Medavoy, Alan Rudolph. 74m. (Ray Pride)
“Nick Nolte: No Exit” opens Friday at Facets.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
