Netflix’s Sly Review: Sylvester Stallone takes you into the eye of the tiger

Director: Thom Zimny

One of the things that makes Sylvester Stallone different from every other mega-star in the history of Hollywood is actually very simple—the 77-year-old Stallone is the only one who wrote and crafted his onscreen persona from scratch. In the early 1970s, Stallone, a struggling young blue-collar actor with a distinctive drawl, was told that he did not have the face or the charm to be a mainstream star. And so it was that Stallone wrote the ultimate working-class underdog role for himself, with Rocky (1976). The rest, as they say, is history. Thom Zimny’s 90-minute documentary Sly attempts to deconstruct the counter-intuitive superstardom of the man himself, aided by talking-head cultural commentators, and a decent line-up of Stallone’s contemporaries including his Expendables co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger, actress Talia Shire (who played Adrian in the Rocky movies) and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

Stallone’s breakdown of his most iconic roles—Rocky Balboa and John Rambo—is the biggest draw, and these segments do not disappoint. I think most people don’t realize just how experienced Stallone is as a screenwriter, and this film does an excellent job of showing us the thought process behind the populism of his movies. Why do Stallone’s characters never die at the end of the movie? What does he feel about the shifting ways in which audiences respond to an underdog story? What does it mean to “root for” a fictional character and why is it so important for the commercial success of a film? Stallone’s answers to all of these questions are more thoughtful and structured than you would think; they’re also a credit to his nous and longevity as a movie star.

Which isn’t to say that Stallone does not have anything meaningful to say about filmmaking as art. He is candid enough to admit to his limitations as an actor. “I’m just not built for Shakespeare,” he says at one point while talking about his infrequent forays into dramatic or comedic territory, like the 1991 John Landis comedy Oscar—a critical and commercial failure. Recently, Stallone tried his hand at a superhero film, Samaritan, and it received similarly lukewarm reviews. But one of the points of this documentary is dealing with failure and rejection. “The rejections I got from everywhere at the beginning of my career,” says Stallone, “Those rejections were my encouragement, you know?” Some of this is just tough-guy bravado but every now and then you see something in Stallone’s eyes that makes you realize how much this meant—and still means—to him.

“What is heathier, to live under the illusion and still have a glimmer of hope that you could have been great, or blow it and realize that you have been a failure? I think the easier route is to live under the illusion and say, ‘If I’d had that chance, I’d have beaten all of them!’”

That little window into the psychology of ‘making it’ is not something you’d expect out of the mouth of a Stallone character, and that’s exactly why Sly is an often surprising and insightful documentary that nevertheless plays it safe on the whole.

Director Zimny steers well clear of the most controversial Stallone topics. There’s no discussion of the sexual assault allegations of 2017, when a woman alleged that Stallone assaulted her in the early 90s. There’s barely a peep about the question of steroid usage (in the past, Stallone has been arrested for possession of an illegal drug). There’s also no mention of Creed, which is funny because Stallone’s big comeback was pretty much geared around that film. Is it because for a change, Stallone was not the star of that film? But he won an Oscar nomination for that role, wouldn’t he want to highlight that fact? Either way, a puzzling choice indeed.

Despite these obvious shortcomings, Sly remains an enjoyable watch. It wears its heart on its sleeve, just like its subject. And while this does leave it open to criticism on several fronts, when it’s good it’s a lot of fun. At 77, Sylvester Stallone isn’t done yet, not by a long stretch. He still has stories left to tell and underdogs to create, audiences to win over. Sly is a sincere love letter to the man who inspired a generation of never-say-die scrappers.

Rating: 3 out 5

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