''My Darling Vivian'' 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 ...

about Vivian Liberto, the first wife of

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

, directed by

Matt Riddlehoover Matt Riddlehoover (born July 26, 1985) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for the 2020 documentary ''My Darling Vivian''. ''My Darling Vivian'' Riddlehoover produced, directed, and edited ''My Darling Vivian'', a biographical documenta ...

. The film premiered at the 2020

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 ...

Film Festival, presented by

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

, on April 27, 2020. It received acclaim from critics and audiences, and was chosen by ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' and the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' as a “must-see” critics' pick.

Premise

Director Matt Riddlehoover traces the romantic and dizzying journey of Vivian Liberto, Johnny Cash's first wife and the mother of his four daughters.

Appearances

* Rosanne Cash (Daughter) * Kathy Cash Tittle (Daughter) *

Cindy Cash Cindy Cash (born July 29, 1959) is an American singer, author, and antiques dealer. Early years Cash is the daughter of singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto. When she was a child, the family lived in Casitas Springs, Califor ...

(Daughter) * Tara Cash Schwoebel (Daughter) * Vivian Liberto in archival recordings *

in archival recordings

Release

''My Darling Vivian'' was shown at many film festivals, including

Northwestfest Northwestfest is an annual film festival in Edmonton, Alberta, which programs a lineup of documentary films. Organized by Global Visions Festival Society, the event is staged annually at the Garneau Theatre. This film festival is the longest running ...

, the

RiverRun International Film Festival The RiverRun International Film Festival is an annual Oscar-qualifying film festival held each spring in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The festival is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and presents a variety of feature-length and short films fro ...

, Galway Film Fleadh, and the Bentonville Film Festival. It had a virtual cinema release in US theaters on June 19, 2020, at

Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (formerly the Bloor Cinema and the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema) is a movie theatre in The Annex district of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located at 506 Bloor Street West, near its intersection with Bathurst Street a ...

in Toronto on June 25, 2020, and at the

VIFF Centre The VIFF Centre (formerly the Vancouver International Film Centre and the Vancity Theatre) is a movie theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which houses the 175-seat Vancity Theatre, the 41-seat Studio Theatre, as well as the offices fo ...

on June 26, 2020 in Vancouver.

Reception

Critical response

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 ...

, the film holds an approval rating of , and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''My Darling Vivian'' adds an overdue corrective to the public story of Johnny Cash's private life -- and a strong testament to the woman at its center." 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 has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Joe Leydon of '' Variety'' wrote: "An exceptional documentary... A fascinating and affecting corrective counterpoint to the Johnny Cash mythos." Sheri Linden of ''

'' wrote: "Brings a woman erased into vivid focus... an engaging and revelatory film that's also deeply affecting." On May 1, 2020, ''

Thirteen Reasons Why ''Thirteen Reasons Why'' (stylized as ''TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY'') is a young adult novel written by Jay Asher in 2007, that follows the story of Hannah Baker, a high school freshman, and the thirteen reasons why she kills herself. Following her de ...

'' author

Jay Asher Jay Asher (born September 30, 1975) is an American writer and novelist. He is best known for writing the bestselling 2007 book ''Thirteen Reasons Why''. Early life Asher was born in Arcadia, California, on September 30, 1975. He is half Jewish. ...

called the film "incredible" and "inspiring in its sadness" on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, m/my_darling_vivian, My Darling Vivian 2020 films American documentary films Biographical documentary films Documentary films about children 2020 documentary films Cultural depictions of Johnny Cash 2020s English-language films 2020s American films