Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.

Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.

8 Episodes

Emerging from the freakiest fringes of the 1960s counterculture, Robert Downey Sr. took the American underground cinema by storm with his wild, weird, and way-out-there send-ups of everything from sex to race relations to religion. In this tribute to one of his filmmaking heroes, acclaimed cinematographer Sean Price Williams (GOOD TIME, FROWNLAND) adopts a style that’s just as out there as his subject, mixing new material shot with Downey, never-before-seen archival footage, and clips from Downey’s boundary-pushing films, a selection of which—including the gonzo corporate satire PUTNEY SWOPE and surrealist acid western GREASER’S PALACE—are presented here.

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Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.
  • Babo 73

    Episode 1

    Directed by Robert Downey Sr. • 1964 • United States

    Taylor Mead plays the president of the United Status, who, when he isn't at the White House, a dilapidated Victorian, conducts his top-secret affairs on a deserted beach. Robert Downey Sr.’s first feature is a rollicking, slapstick, ultra-lo...

  • Chafed Elbows

    Episode 2

    Directed by Robert Downey Sr. • 1966 • United States

    This riot of bad taste was a breakthrough for Robert Downey Sr., thanks to rave notices. Visualized largely in still 35 mm photographs, it follows a shiftless downtown Manhattanite having his “annual November breakdown” as he wanders from on...

  • No More Excuses

    Episode 3

    Directed by Robert Downey Sr. and Robert Soukis • 1968 • United States

    Downey takes his camera and microphone onto the streets (and into some bedrooms) for a look at Manhattan’s singles scene of the late sixties. Of course, that’s not all: NO MORE EXCUSES cuts between this footage and the frag...

  • Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight

    Episode 4

    Directed by Robert Downey Sr. • 1975 • United States

    "A film without a beginning or an end," in Downey's words, this Dadaist thingamajig, a never-before-seen, newly reedited version of the director's 1975 release Moment to Moment (also known as Jive), is a rush of curious sketches, scenes, and...

  • Robert Downey: Moment to Moment

    Episode 5

    Directed by Sean Price Williams • 2021 • United States

    To pay tribute to one of his filmmaking heroes, Sean Price Willams adopts a style that’s just as out there as his subject, mixing new material and never-before-seen archival footage in this portrait of the underground film titan Robert Downe...

  • Robert Downey Sr. and Paul Thomas Anderson on BABO 73

    Episode 6

    This conversation between BABO 73 director Robert Downey Sr. and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson was recorded in 2012.

  • Robert Downey Sr. and Paul Thomas Anderson on NO MORE EXCUSES

    Episode 7

    This conversation between NO MORE EXCUSES director Robert Downey Sr. and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson was recorded in 2012.

  • Robert Downey Sr. and Paul Thomas Anderson on TWO TONS OF TURQUOISE

    Episode 8

    This conversation between TWO TONS OF TURQUOISE director Robert Downey Sr. and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson was recorded in 2012.