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Very well executed

Brilliant and touching

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

You get a bit of everything here; looks at cranky Harlan, rants, and book excerpts. While it'd be nice to have some more in depth analysis of his work, his personality is just so big that it overpowers it all. Super entertaining movie.

...after Harlan Ellison was born, simple as that, and the world will be a lesser place once he is gone. Fortunately, though, his writing will survive, and that's good enough for me. In my pantheon of cultural heroes, he remains at or near the top, depending on my situation at the time; he has spoken to me and for me throughout my lifetime of reading more than any other author, almost as though he were a second father, or perhaps an older brother to be worshiped from afar. I will weep at his passing.No one who is at all literate can remain unaware of Ellison's work, and very likely unaware of his reputation. Mercurial, iconoclastic, savage, unrelenting; a thesaurus can barely contain all the descriptives that apply to Ellison and his voluminous output. My sole encounter with him occurred decades ago, when I was lucky enough to attend one of his speaking gigs at a nearby college. I brought several spoken word LPs he had recorded, prizes of my collection, in hopes of an autograph or two, and when I made it to the front of the line and was face to face with the man himself, all I could think to say beyond the obvious sycophantic pleasantries was that I had read everything he'd ever written. He looked at me askance, and said something along the lines of, "Really?" and then signed my LPs. I fled, chastened, grateful that I had been spared further ignominy. My love for the man and his work now knows no bounds."Dreams with Sharp Teeth" is a must-see for all Ellison devotees, and neophytes as well.

If this little doc does nothing but make you curious enough about the work of Ellison to go out a read a few of his short stories, it will be worth your time. Imagine how curious you would be if Mark Twain were still alive and could be interviewed. Yeah, it's just like that. And Ellison writes as well as Twain did.Actually, there are some parallels and stark contrasts between Sam Clemens and Ellison. Twain's _Tom Sawyer_ was the first novel written on a typewriter. Ellison has a typewriter, which he pecks on with two fingers, but never used a computer or word-processing program. Clemens and Twain were irascible and fearless when it came to declaiming what they believed to be true. Both were highly ethical, but cared little for religion. Both writers were prolific. Twain did _not_ have a Jewish mother. Oy. Both were spellbinding on the lecture circuit. Both of them will be read as long as the English language exists. If you have any interest in fantasy or fiction or science fiction, Ellison's genius and sharp wit are unsurpassed. Clemens is long gone, but thank God I lived to read --and see-- Ellison!

DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH is a low-budget documentary about Ellison made by Erik Nelson that dates back to 1981, when Nelson interviewed Ellison for TV. Various friends and associates provide on-camera commentaries about Harlan Ellison's fiction, career, romances, personality, and how he affected their lives and world views. However, the majority of screen time is taken up by Ellison himself: reading passages from stories, telling jokes, relating childhood memories, showing us around his amazing house (nicknamed The Lost Aztec Temple of Mars), talking candidly about social issues and writing projects, or just bumming around Los Angeles. Even though there's about 60 clips of Ellison on YouTube, fans should grab DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH because it's a priceless distillation of the phenomenon that is Harlan Ellison, warts and all.The only problem is that at 96 minutes, the documentary is too brief. Maybe that's a compliment? For example, the archive clips could have run a few minutes longer without tormenting people's bladders and taxing the film's editor. The US DVD includes snippets of story readings, footage of the premier in LA, and an extended chat with Neil Gaiman over pizza.