''Crazy, Not Insane'' is a 2020 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed and produced by

Alex Gibney Philip Alexander Gibney (; born October 23, 1953) is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, ''Esquire'' magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time". Gibney's works as director include '' ...

. It follows the research of psychiatrist Dr.

Dorothy Otnow Lewis Dorothy Otnow Lewis is an American psychiatrist and author who has been an expert witness at a number of high-profile cases. She specializes in the study of violent individuals and people with dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as ...

who studied the psychology of murders. It is narrated by

Laura Dern Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globe Awards. Born to actor Bruce Dern and ac ...

. The film had its world premiere at

Copenhagen International Documentary Festival CPH:DOX is the official name for the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, an international documentary film festival established in 2003 and held annually in Copenhagen, Denmark. CPH:DOX has since grown to become one of the largest ...

(CPH:DOX) on March 18, 2020. It was released on November 18, 2020, by

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

Synopsis

The film follows the research of psychiatrist Dr.

who studied the psychology of murders. Richard Burr, Catherine Yeager,

Park Dietz A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

and Bill Hagmaier also appear in the film.

Production

Initially,

asked

if she would consult on a planned miniseries he was doing which was set to star

as a psychiatrist who saw patients on death row, Lewis was delighted and agreed, and showed Gibney videotapes of her past cases, which Gibney found interesting. Initially the film was called ''Dorothy and Ted'' and was set to follow Lewis as she investigated serial killer

Ted Bundy Theodore Robert Bundy ( born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade ...

and reflected back on her interview with him in 1989, however, in the final cut Bundy appears in a smaller part.

Release

The film was set to have its world premiere at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

in March 2020, however, the festival was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The film instead had its world premiere at the CPH:DOX on March 18, 2020. The film screened at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

on September 10, 2020. It is scheduled to be released on November 18, 2020.

Reception

Critical reception

''Crazy, Not Insane'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on reviews, with an average of . The site's critical consensus reads, "''Crazy, Not Insane'' isn't as narratively disciplined as documentarian Alex Gibney's best work, but Dorothy Otnow Lewis' clinical analysis of murderous psychology may prompt unexpected sympathy for the devil." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film holds a rating of 78 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * * {{Alex Gibney 2020 films 2020 documentary films American documentary films HBO documentary films Films directed by Alex Gibney 2020s English-language films 2020s American films