As the news items dribbling out from the release of Charlie Sheen’s memoir show, Sheen is not afraid of being pretty honest about his life, which has been tabloid fodder for almost 40 years. In a new docuseries, Sheen covers similar ground, with supporting interviews from some of the most important people in his life — though a number of important people refused to participate.
Opening Shot: We hear the opening theme to Two And A Half Men, and see Jon Cryer getting touched up for his interview.
The Gist: In the two-part, three-hour docuseries AKA Charlie Sheen, directed by Andrew Renzi, Sheen sits in a booth at a diner and is brutally honest about his tumultuous, tabloid-friendly life. Renzi’s probing interview with Sheen is the centerpiece of the docuseries, but he also speaks to a number of important people in Sheen’s history. Among the people interviewed: childhood friends Sean Penn and Tony Todd, older brother Ramon Estevez, ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller, children Lola and Bob Sheen, Men creator Chuck Lorre, Cryer, Heidi Fleiss, and more. Renzi also talks to Marco, Sheen’s friend and main dealer during his “tiger blood” period.
Among those who didn’t agree to speak, including Sheen’s other three children are his father, Martin Sheen and brother Emilio Estevez. Sheen acknowledges that it’s completely understandable that they didn’t want to go over so many painful incidents in his life, and given how active Martin Sheen was in trying to get his son in recovery on more than one occasion, it makes sense.
The first part covers Sheen’s childhood in Malibu, where he was Carlos “Charlie” Estevez. He made short films with his brother Emilio and other friends like Penn, George Clooney and more. Martin Sheen took his kids to the sets of movies he worked on, including the contentious set of Apocalypse Now, which filmed in the Philippines when Charlie Sheen was only 11.
It then covers the first two of the three phases that Sheen used to describe his life: “Partying, Partying With Problems, and Just Problems,” where he partied hard with people like Nic Cage through the ’80s and ’90s, but kept getting huge breaks, like being cast in a small but pivotal role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the lead role in Platoon. His testimony against Heidi Fleiss is also discussed. Interventions and other efforts on the part of his family only did so much. The first part ends with his post-rehab opportunity to take over for Michael J. Fox on Spin City and goes right up until he got the role of Charlie Harper on Two And A Half Men.
Part 2 goes over the huge success of Men, his doomed marriages to Richards and Mueller, and how it all started falling apart in 2009, when he started smoking crack. It eventually led to the dispute with Lorre that got him fired off Men and the crazy media appearances and theater tour, where he crazily ranted about “Winning” and how he had “tiger blood,” a time in his life he looks back on and barely recognizes himself.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? AKA Charlie Sheen felt a bit like the recent documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes, but a whole lot crazier.
Our Take: We only intended to watch the first part of AKA Charlie Sheen, given the fact that Netflix didn’t provide screeners and the doc was a 3-hour time commitment. But as we watched Sheen go over his entire life, complete with snippets of his old super-8 short films, clips from his movies that were cleverly used to illustrate moments in his life, and the candid interviews given by the people in his life, we were engrossed. We’ve always been fascinated with how Sheen has always been able to come out the other side of his extreme periods of being gripped by his addiction and not only thrive, but be reflective of what the non-sober periods of his life were like. He does that here, having been sober for eight years, and it’s fascinating.
Richards tells Renzi that she agreed to be interviewed because she was afraid that if she didn’t give her perspective, the film would be a “puff piece.” But she didn’t need to worry about it, because Sheen was tougher on himself than anyone else could, mainly because he knew he left a trail of failed marriages and family rifts behind after his partying phases. He specifically acknowledged that, while he was around a large number of enablers during the 2011 “tiger blood” phase, he also agreed to do all of it. In other words, he’s not pinning blame on anyone but himself.
We give Renzi credit for smartly leading Sheen through the touchier parts of his history, especially the stuff he was saying in the film and his new memoir for the first time. For instance, he didn’t try to sensationalize Sheen’s admission that he had sex with men starting with his crack phase. Sheen admitted to it without any regret or guilt, saying it felt liberating, mainly because that’s a part of his sexual history that shouldn’t have stayed hidden to begin with. Again, Sheen is just being true to himself, and moments like that are what made us sit up and pay attention for the entire three hours.
Sex and Skin: Lots of talk about Sheen’s sexual exploits, including an explicit story about the first time he tried crack.
Parting Shot: Scenes from the second half of the film, covering his success on Men, his 2nd and 3rd marriages, and all the “winning” he did while on crack and testosterone.
Sleeper Star: We appreciated Richards’ brutal honesty, telling Renzi to keep filming as she teared up while talking about Sheen’s hopeless addiction issues during their marriage.
Most Pilot-y Line: One of the more head-scratching interviews was with Chris Tucker, who co-starred with Sheen in the 1997 action comedy Money Talks. Tucker himself was fine, but we were wondering what insight he could bring that his friends, family and longtime colleagues like Cryer couldn’t.
Our Call: STREAM IT. If you have any curiosity at all about Charlie Sheen, you’ll consume AKA Charlie Sheen in one three-hour gulp like we did. Sheen’s forthrightness and brutal honesty as he reflects back on his eventful life so far is just that fascinating to watch.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.