Dreams With Sharp Teeth (2007)

96% of critics liked it
(23 reviews)
85% of users liked it
(670 ratings)

Anyone coming to Dreams With Sharp Teeth expecting a formal, traditionally organized biographical sketch of author Harlan Ellison will be disappointed. But what they will find instead is Ellison more or less unchained and ranging (and raging) across his past and into the future (circa 2007), having… More Anyone coming to Dreams With Sharp Teeth expecting a formal, traditionally organized biographical sketch of author Harlan Ellison will be disappointed. But what they will find instead is Ellison more or less unchained and ranging (and raging) across his past and into the future (circa 2007), having great fun with his many and varied targets, and giving his own accounts of some of the triumphs that people often cite in his past. Perhaps the most satisfying moment comes when the author presents his version of one portion (one of the least controversial portions) of his Hugo Award-winning script for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" -- he ends up making the production crew for the series look like fools, and longing to see the story told as he wrote it. By contrast, presented without comment is one excerpt of the award-winning Outer Limits episode "Demon With a Glass Hand," which apparently was shot more or less as he wrote it. In between and around these two polar opposite successes of his early career, Ellison rails and laughs, berates and curses, and generally has a great deal of fun launching his barbs at a multitude of targets, including himself, as often as not. One eerie aspect of watching him across this fast-paced account, which covers many decades of his life, is realizing how much Ellison resembles the late actor George Grizzard as he looked and sounded from the 1960s to the 21st century -- if there was an actor who might've portrayed this unique personality in a dramatic context, it was Grizzard. But much more important than any such mundane observations is the keen appreciation that the filmmaker has for his subject, sufficient to take us on what amounts to a cinematic roller-coaster ride across one part of Ellison's psyche. That's how it's paced, and that how it's best to take in this delightfully quirky and lively nonfiction film. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 36 min.
Directed By: Erik Nelson
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Jun 4, 2008 Wide
On DVD: May 26, 2009
Studio: Creative Differences

Critic Reviews

V.A. Musetto, New York Post
It would seem no easy task conveying the essence of a bigger-than-life figure like Ellison in a 96-minute film. But Nelson, producer of Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, makes it look easy.
Michael Alan Connelly, New York Magazine
What makes this bracing documentary, 27 years in the making, is Ellison's incredible personal history.
Nathan Lee, New York Times
Directed by Erik Nelson, Dreams With Sharp Teeth recalls the career of Harlan Ellison, a runty young geek who evolved into a world-famous artist.
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice
Documentarian Erik Nelson, overcautious of his subject, is content to let Ellison luxuriate in his legacy of infamy--as a lothario, and a litigious and pugilistic combatant.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Ellison é arrogante, mal-humorado, impulsivo, auto-indulgente, prolixo e agressivo. ... também brilhante, articulado e divertidíssimo %u2013 exatamente como este belo documentário que gira em torno não de sua obra, mas de sua personalidade.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Snappy documentary on prolific writer Harlan Ellison.
Leo Goldsmith, indieWIRE
If there is a criticism to be lobbed at Nelson's judicious but otherwise highly entertaining tribute, it's that it too often plays the role of the fawning, autograph-hungry fanboy, willing to accept all of the abuse Ellison wishes to hurl at it.
Bill Gibron, PopMatters
As documentaries go, it's a brilliant distillation of a figure of almost impossible scope. Here's hoping it opens Ellison up to a whole new audience - and here's knowing that they won't be ready for him.
Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com
Although nearly every filmgoer will enjoy the larger than life player in this 90- some minute presentation, writers will especially relate (or take exception, as the case may be).
Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis
(Ellison) does not suffer fools easily, and from his tight-rope walkers point of view there are an awful lot of fools down there.
Noel Murray, AV Club
All told, Ellison is a fascinating person to spend 96 minutes with. But you probably shouldn't risk that 97th.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
A fascinating, if cautious, portrait of a great writer and a world-class crank who is never less than compelling and often completely justified in his rants.
John P. McCarthy, Boxoffice Magazine
Will inspire all writers, anyone concerned with intellectual property rights and every independent-minded grouch, whether or not he gives a fig for art or has a creative bone in his body.
David Fear, Time Out New York
If Nelson's aim was simply to give this bull a stage on which to rage, he's succeeded; if the director is also trying to advocate the importance of Ellison as a man of letters, he's wildly off the mark.
Nick Schager, Cinematical
More content to hang out with Ellison ... than systematically pick him apart and put him back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Ethan Alter, Film Journal International
If Dreams with Sharp Teeth isn't as...well, sharp as it could be, it's still enormously enjoyable, particularly for sci-fi fans.
Simon Abrams, New York Press
Harlan Ellison is irresistibly snarky, persistently cynical and preternaturally intelligent, and so are his stories. Dreams with Sharp Teeth illustrates that well by training an eye on his larger-than-life personality and his considerable accomplishments.

Read all 17 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Randy T

Harlan's life imitates his art. Angry. Rebellious. Uncompromising.
Jim H

This documentary is relatively even-handed as it presents Harlan Ellison, a prolific, important, but impishly angry writer. There are several laugh-out-loud moments of the cringe humor ilk as we listen to Ellison rant about fans, writers, Hollywood, politics, and writing. I enjoyed… More
This documentary is relatively even-handed as it presents Harlan Ellison, a prolific, important, but impishly angry writer. There are several laugh-out-loud moments of the cringe humor ilk as we listen to Ellison rant about fans, writers, Hollywood, politics, and writing. I enjoyed listening to much of what he had to say, but I don't think I could stand to be in the room with him unless I knew that he liked me and was unarmed.
Spencer S

Creative personalities, however bright their stars gleam, collapse under the weight of the world's pressures. Harlan Ellison, the brightest of all these literary stars, takes these impossible problems and swallows them whole. So is the subject of this insightful documentary,… More
Creative personalities, however bright their stars gleam, collapse under the weight of the world's pressures. Harlan Ellison, the brightest of all these literary stars, takes these impossible problems and swallows them whole. So is the subject of this insightful documentary, centering on the giant, with awards in the genres of sci-fi, mystery, and political commentary. Not only has this pillar written 70 novels, hundreds of short stories, nonfiction, teleplays, and screenplays, but is one of the most interesting human beings I have ever seen. Following his life in the limelight as an intellectual of unparalleled comparison, and his early years as a downtrodden Jewish teen in anti-Semitic Ohio, we are given a complicated maze in which to extract the personage of Ellison. Not only is he against all forms of bullsh*t, but was a figure in the civil rights movement, and a mouthpiece for education. Putting the praises aside, the trailer reveals the true payoff, which is that Ellison is also an intolerable narrator of his own life. He has awesome (and I mean that as in awe inspiring) knowledge to lay down in commentary throughout the film, speaking of what it is to be a writer, a famous personality, and an independent entity among the Hollywood elite and cultural milieu. He is loud, obnoxious, and at times reviles you, but is so entertaining and uncaring of the views of populist America, that not to appreciate his audacity feels like heresy. In the midst of all that prophecy he lays down, he is also a bitter, old, angry man, but with the credentials he has, it's hard to imagine him being anything resembling timid. He is, by all accounts, the most original person alive. Peppering his own narration is that of Robin Williams, Neil Gaiman, and Dan Simmons, great artists who not only see him as a glorious person, but the human he so truly embodies. This, is a film you must see, and cannot fully be explained. A film where creativity blooms, ripe to pick for the eager mind.
_kelly .

Mandatory viewing for all living artists, especially writers and authors. A candid, fun, and thorough immersion into the world of Harlan Ellison with interviews and cameos by several living legends of the creative world. I'm just disappointed that they didn't go into the… More
Mandatory viewing for all living artists, especially writers and authors. A candid, fun, and thorough immersion into the world of Harlan Ellison with interviews and cameos by several living legends of the creative world. I'm just disappointed that they didn't go into the whole Harlan Ellison vs the Internet thing (and how it drained him of money and energy), or just his sue-happy exploits throughout the years. I take it that this is meant to glamorize Ellison, while also humanizing him, and will do well as a video intro to the man and his viewpoint for new readers and students.
Walter M

"Dreams with Sharp Teeth" is an entertaining documentary about the life and work of Harlan Ellison, the prolific speculative fiction writer who has written more than 1700 stories, some in a store window to prove a point, that occasionally feel like a slap to the face.(There… More
"Dreams with Sharp Teeth" is an entertaining documentary about the life and work of Harlan Ellison, the prolific speculative fiction writer who has written more than 1700 stories, some in a store window to prove a point, that occasionally feel like a slap to the face.(There is even a warning at the beginning of an edition of his Deathbird Stories, not to read it all in one go.) The best way to get to know him is through these stories and essays, where he is remarkably open about his own life(including the dead gerbil) as he proves that the best revenge is to live well. The documentary does add more details I was unaware of and it is a treat to hear him read from his own works. However, I would have loved to have heard more on his politics and love of movies. Regrettably, since we live in an age when image is everything, Ellison is mostly known for his cantankerous personality.(Due to the vastly different ways they carry themselves, it is odd seeing him hang out with Neil Gaiman, despite their shared profession.) So, the guy's not going to win the Nobel Peace Prize, so what?(However, his wife Susan of 20 years probably has a decent shot at it...) In reality, he is continually fighting for writer's fees and other causes, where he is extremely litigious and is brutally honest.(For example, his advice to young writers is to "stop writing crap." Truer words never spoken.) And then there is the ambivalence towards his fans which can also be seen as impatience at their seeming unwillingness to engage his works on a certain level due maybe to laziness at only taking but not putting anything back in.(To read a darker essay along these same lines, check out "Xenogenesis.") This also explains his hatred of television which has never really been amenable to science fiction.
William G

Doc showcases prolific author Harlan Ellison through his own anecdotes and no-gruff attitude.