Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

R

Released Jun 15, 1971

1h 48m

Comedy

Drama

List

40%

5 Reviews

Tomatometer

33%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Paranoid guilt and someone named Harry drive a rich pop star/composer (Dustin Hoffman) to a psychiatrist (Jack Warden).

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

There's a certain flabbiness in its philosophy. And yet, I reacted very favorably to some scenes in the film, and I think Hoffman's two long scenes with Barbara Harris are among the best cinema I've seen in some time.

Rated: 3/4

Jul 9, 2018

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Fans of Dustin Hoffman should appreciate this neglected vintage offering from Ulu Grosbard, which ends with a graceful dual slalom set to the fitting soundtrack from Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show.

Rated: 3.5/5

Oct 8, 2020

Full Review

John Mahoney

Los Angeles Free Press

Thematically, it belongs in the Ffties. Cinematically, it thrashes about in a 1965 culture lag.

Jan 10, 2020

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Tony Mastroianni

Cleveland Press

The movie says the craziness is not a laughing matter, then doesn't know what to do about it.

Oct 3, 2018

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Though the acting by Hoffman and especially Barbara Harris (in Oscar nominated turn) is good, Ulu Grosbard's satire seldom finds the right tone.

Rated: C

Jul 25, 2011

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Shioka O

Kinda surreal. I need more explanation.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

10/14/22

Full Review

kevin c

Quirky existential comedy which sees Dustin Hoffman playing a songwriter who writes love songs but has trouble with love in his real life. Interesting film sees him contemplating suicide and instances with his therapist. Decent film made tat much better because of Hoffman.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I can't let go off the lamp. Absurd, touching, funny, crazy. It's a movie cut in many different sequences, and to my taste, not entirely finished. It bounces forth and back around the life of a character who, between psychoanalysis (very popular in the 70's) and dreams, questions why does he wants to kill himself. An interesting movie about the subject taken with a second degree (maybe the belgian side of the director Ulu ‘Grosbard' ).

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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steve d

About as easy to remember as its title.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not entirely a success, but underrated. Hoffman plays Georgie Soloway, a Paul-Simonesque-but-more-of-a-hippie songwriter becoming disenchanted with his enormous popularity and wealth, and the film resolves itself into a series of vignettes in which he desperately seeks to break out of his penthouse isolation and find real companionship, only to discover that he has only servants, sycophants, leeches, and fans, no real friends. The film tries for something different in its trip, fragmented character study, and Hoffman is too good not to have some fine moments, but he never seems at him in the character, the dialogue has not aged well (very 1972 'trendy,' now apt to provoke laughs), and the frequent flashes back to his pre-success married days don't work in his character's favor (undermines our sympathy for him). The one truly lasting, noteworthy aspect of the film is the all-too-brief appearance of Barbara Harris as an aspiring singer trying out for a part in a play to be based on Soloway's works, but who knows that she's already aged past these parts and doesn't sing well enough; her dream is not going to come true. Harris is heartbreaking, her tremulous voice conveying the uncertainty of dashed hopes and her eyes a watery ocean of youthful hope obscured by age and crow's feet. She blows Hoffman off the screen, and her appearance is all too short. She was nominated for Oscar for this role, and deservedly so. All in all, a curious early '70's experiment; the experiment doesn't really work, but it leaves behind interesting nuggets and its motivations are to be admired.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

My favourite film, despite the poor reviews of just about everyone else who has ever seen it. So many fantastic lines, wonderful, strange, surreal, stream-of-conscience plot line and good performances from just about everyone concerned. Well worth at least one viewing, especially by anyone interested in fringe cinema of the era.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

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Ulu Grosbard

Director

Dustin Hoffman

Georgie Soloway

Jack Warden

Dr. Solomon F. Moses

Barbara Harris

Allison Densmore

David Burns

Leon Soloway

Gabriel Dell

Sidney Gill

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Synopsis

Paranoid guilt and someone named Harry drive a rich pop star/composer (Dustin Hoffman) to a psychiatrist (Jack Warden).

Director: Ulu Grosbard
Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 15, 1971, Original
Release Date (DVD): Jan 28, 2014
Runtime: 1h 48m