Directed by Robert B. Weide & Don Argott
Written & Produced by Robert B. Weide
Featuring Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. & Robert B. Weide
Runtime: 2 hours and 6 minutes
Available in theaters & on VOD on November 19th

by Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

All this happened, more or less. 

Listen: Robert B. Weide has come unstuck in time.

In 2003, Robert B. Weide won a Primetime Emmy for his work on the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, though he’d won two prior to that for non-scripted work. His good friend, possibly his best friend, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. congratulated him on his success. 

When he was in his 20s, Weide approached his favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., to inquire about making a documentary about him. He’d just come off making one for television about the Marx Brothers and decided to shoot his shot (an admirable trait that paid off with a life-long friendship). Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. didn’t read Weide’s letter for a while, simply because he’d been out of town. But once he did, Vonnegut agreed to meet with the filmmaker. He’d liked the Marx Brothers piece, but wasn’t sure how interesting he’d be. 

At the age of 62, older than Vonnegut had been when they’d originally met, Weide’s documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is finally being released. It’s a film that is at once about Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s life and work, but is also about Robert B. Weide’s life and work. Weide never intended to be a subject in the film, but he has found himself slightly off center of it - and it only serves to make the film stronger.

By looking at Vonnegut through the lens of both fan and close friend, Weide is able to articulate what makes the author such an enduring figure in both literature and culture at large. The film seems like it bounces around in a Slaughterhouse-Five style, but it remains a pretty straightforward, and often chronological, exploration of Vonnegut’s life. However, that’s not to say that it doesn’t feel like the man’s most recognized work. Because in the decades of Weide and company trying to put this film together, they’ve imbued it with a sort of Tralfamadorian view. 

The film can see everything about Vonnegut’s life, and it uses that information to explore how each instance changed him. From his time as a prisoner of war in Dresden, to the many devastating deaths in his family, and, of course, to all the joy and success. But the film knows about Weide’s life, too. The teenager and young adult he became because of Kurt’s writing, the drive (and love) that forced him to reach out about the documentary in the first, and the 25 years of friendship he was able to have with Vonnegut before his untimely death. 

It’s remarkable that Weide, his directing partner Don Argott, and their very talented team of editors (William Neal, Bo Price, and Demian Fenton) were able to fit two very full lives into two hours and never have it drag. There’s a mix of artistic renderings, home footage, and Weide’s own footage that creates the ever twisting and compelling lives of these two men (with an obvious emphasis on Vonnegut as the main subject).

Like many, including Weide, I found Vonnegut through reading assignments in high school. His writing confronts big ideas, but in an accessible and funny way. And Weide’s film is much the same. It’s very clearly been a labor of love and sadness that has resulted in something truly beautiful. Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is a masterpiece that weaves the lives of two creatives and, more importantly, best friends together in a way befitting Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s own work and style.