- Network: HBO Max
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 21, 2022
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Critic Reviews
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The radical brilliance of Ethan Hawke’s penetrating look into the exceptional art and stormy marriage of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward is essential viewing for fans and newbies alike and an outpouring of movie love you’ll never forget.
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This series is way better than good. It's easy to imagine people who know nothing about Newman and Woodward being mesmerized by it.
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We learn an encyclopedia’s worth of detail about their careers, lives and struggles over the immersive, exhaustive six chapters of The Last Movie Stars. [25 Jul - 14 Aug 2022, p.4]
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A new benchmark for in-depth looks at films and those who make them. For film lovers, “The Last Movie Stars” is unapologetically essential viewing, a gold standard fitting that rare on-screen power couple whose image together transcended even the often-spectacular work they did, with or without each other, on the big screen.
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[Ethan Hawke] expertly weaves footage from their films that, when paired with the memoir audio, takes on autobiographical layers, unearthing them like an archaeologist finding these layers hidden in plain sight. ... While the doc’s exploration of Newman’s superstardom in the 1960s is strong, Hawke’s careful examination of how motherhood affected Woodward’s stardom is raw and powerful.
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[Ethan Hawke's] geeked-out zeal for the details of these two lives, and the lifetime of work they produced, injects the whole project with a joie de vivre that its three subjects — Woodward, Newman, and their marriage — demand.
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It’s a picture-perfect look at a highly imperfect show-biz-royalty relationship. ... Because of his [Ethan Hawke's] willingness to look at all of it, the good and the bad and as much of the truth of it all he can track down, Hawke’s efforts pay off in a spectacular fashion.
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The series is a visual feast. But its heart is Stern’s interviews, and Hawke came up with a terrific way to present them. ... At first, this [Hawke's Zoom appearances] seems like an affectation — though at the time it must have been a pandemic-dictated necessity. It quickly comes to seem natural, lending an informality to the film that makes it seem even more engaging.
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This documentary series may not convince you its subjects were the last movie stars; their mastery of showing what they wanted the world to see feels utterly contemporary. But they’re unusually gifted ones — as, after spending six hours in their company, you’ll leave “The Last Movie Stars” wanting more.
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This thoughtful exploration of the couple’s artistic collaborations and offscreen relationship offers surprises at every turn and, with no prefab treatise to prove, it gets under the skin. ... The series is haunting as well as celebratory, filled with reminders of unsung triumphs and forgotten corners of the filmographies and stage work. Fans both ardent and casual will find plenty to savor.
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You get an almost visceral appreciation for Hawke’s unbridled and infectious love of movies and his undying passion for chronicling the life and times of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, the subjects of this brilliantly conceived, masterfully executed, admirably honest and consistently revealing series.
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In the span of 60 minutes Hawke not only lays the groundwork for how Woodward and Newman fell in love, but how they came to represent the last gasp of a dying era. ... If you’re a classic film fan or just a devotee of cinema make it a point of seeing "The Last Movie Stars."
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It’s an indulgent project, but it’s thoughtful enough about episodic shape to justify the run time. By the end, it cannot help but trend toward a touch of mysticism, and yet it’s hard to begrudge Hawke’s bald fondness.
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[Ethan Hawke] adopts the role of enthusiastic fan and master of ceremonies. The result, though it loses momentum across its six episodes, is charming, entertaining and, for the eyes, addictive.
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Despite the self-indulgent aspects of The Last Movie Stars, Ethan Hawke has created a fascinating docuseries about one of the biggest Hollywood power couples ever, as well as the issues that defined their marriage.
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The director/narrator's enthusiasm serves to undercut the importance of his subjects. ... Perhaps you have to be a fan of either of the actors already to burrow into "The Last Movie Stars," though in terms of film biography, or documentary in general, it's a remarkable piece of work in the way it toys with structure and freewheeling impressionistic portraiture and creates a knowing account of what it meant to have a life in pictures, and marry it to another, and then figure out who is going to be who, and which part to play. As a story about stars, it may be a period piece. As a story about relationships, it doesn't really have an expiration date.
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