Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold

2017

1h 34m

Documentary

List

89%

36 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Actor and director Griffin Dunne uses a treasure trove of archival footage to chronicle Joan Didion's influential career.

Read More

Read Less

Watch on Netflix

Stream Now

Netflix

Watch Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold with a subscription on Netflix.

Critics Consensus

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold pays tribute to an American literary legend with a richly personal perspective that should thrill devotees while enlightening newcomers.

Read Critics Reviews

sofia g

I never heard her name before I saw this documentary, and afterward I have more questions than answers. There was too little actual information about what she did and what happened.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/21/23

Full Review

georgan g

The documentary was well done, but frankly I didn't like Didion's character. She needed "protection" so much that she stayed married to someone whose rage was triggered by "everything"? Guess clever people aren't as emotionally mature as you might assume.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

david f

While Didion's life doesn't quite have as much interest as her writing, this was a good briefing on the biographical details of one of my favourite writers.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It is a poetic movie - of the human experience, life experience of a writer, an artist, the documentary is suspenseful and illuminating. You get a true slice of the Joan Didion experience.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

william k

Intimate documentary directed by the author's nephew gives a quite comprehensive overview of her life and works and - especially the recent years - strongly and excruciatingly tinged with tragedy, loss and grief.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

- Joan Didion gets personal in The Center Will Not Hold - How on earth did I not know who Joan Didion was? And more importantly, HOW, I repeat HOW, did I not know she was one of the most celebrated and talented writer/journalists in the world? One day I was scrolling Twitter and actress Sarah Paulson (American Crime Story, Carol) tweeted that she was excited to watch the new Netflix documentary, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. I had no idea who this Joan Didion person was but if Sarah Paulson was going to watch a movie about her, I was too. I didn't realize that Didion would become a hero of mine in just 94 minutes. The movie is directed by Griffin Dunne (The Good Wife, Practical Magic), Didion's nephew, and it is a simple yet beautiful documentary about Didion's life and work. In her interviews, she was well into her 80s and I found myself reeling from her every word. When she spoke, she had these over the top hand gestures that lured me in. It was like she was casting a spell and I was falling in love with her magic. Although there are many noteworthy moments in The Center Will Not Hold, one in particular made me yell out, "What the hell, Joan!?" Didion and her nephew recall one of her most popular articles about drugs in the 60s. She wrote about a five-year-old girl she had witnessed foaming at the mouth and tripping on acid. Multiple people are interviewed about the incident and they comment on how horrible it was to witness this scene in real life. When Didion was asked how she felt in that moment, she thought long and hard about her answer. Then she said, "it was gold." That was the moment I knew I LOVED this woman. She was brutally honest. I don't doubt for a second that she was not horrified at the sight of a child on drugs. But she was a writer and a journalist and she had a job to do. That ability to see something unpleasant and write about it is why Didion is so fascinating to the world. She's written about the Manson murders, drugs, and the feminist movement but Didion also writes about the tragedy in her personal life. The film tells the story of two particular events where she almost succumbed to the agony of it all and then how she triumphed and continued to write. I absolutely adored Joan Didion. When other women writers were writing about fashion trends and makeup tips on the pages of Vogue, she was on the next page inspiring women to live their best lives, encouraging them to value their womanhood and be whoever they wanted to be in the world. She didn't conform to her surroundings, she was simply, Joan. If I am half as courageous in my writing when I get to her age, I will be a happy writer indeed. I am so fucken glad I saw that Tweet from Sarah Paulson. ---------- This review was first published on Narrative Muse, http://www.narrativemuse.co/movies/joan-didion-the-center-will-not-hold. Narrative Muse curates the best books and movies by and about women and non-binary folk on our website http://narrativemuse.co and our social media channels.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Griffin Dunne

Director

Joan Didion

Self

Hilton Als

Self

Tom Brokaw

Self

Griffin Dunne

Self

Harrison Ford

Self

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

70%

67%

Becoming Mike Nichols

70%

67%

Altman

74%

%

Flannery

TRAILER

for Flannery

89%

98%

Wait for Your Laugh

TRAILER

for Wait for Your Laugh

99%

79%

McQueen

TRAILER

for McQueen

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

2017 Fall TV Premiere Dates

Watch Online: Arrival, The Hateful Eight, and More on Netflix and Amazon Prime

Suburbicon Is a Stale Satire

View more photos

Alex McLevy

AV Club

How vital is Didion? Harrison Ford shows up to discuss being her carpenter in '70s Malibu, and all you want is to get back to Joan.

Dec 14, 2017

Full Review

April Wolfe

Village Voice

Director Dunne continues in this family tradition here -- he respects Didion enough to let her decide how much she wants to reveal, and Didion trusts Dunne to get it right on the screen.

Nov 30, 2017

Full Review

Anna Leszkiewicz

New Statesman

If you're at all interested in Didion's life and work, those flashes are worth watching.

Nov 10, 2017

Full Review

Diana Cheng

Ripple Effects

Listening to the narration in the documentary and seeing the iconic photos and footage of significant turns of history, Didion’s analyses just as well could have applied to our world today... “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”

Rated: 3.5/4

Sep 9, 2023

Full Review

Hannah Keegan

Dazed and Confused

Emphasises the writer's special combination of human fragility and literary stature.

Feb 28, 2019

Full Review

Shawn Glinis

Film Inquiry

Trying to cover Joan Didion the person, the writer and the wife and mother in 95 minutes couldn't be anything but incomplete and broad.

Jan 19, 2018

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Actor and director Griffin Dunne uses a treasure trove of archival footage to chronicle Joan Didion's influential career.

Director: Griffin Dunne
Producer: Lisa Nishimura, Ben Cotner, Jason Spingarn-Koff
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 28, 2017
Runtime: 1h 34m

Most Popular at Home Now