The movie is grounded in wonderful behind-the-scenes style clips of Sr. and Jr., as they are referred to in the film, goofing around and cracking jokes, two charismatic figures with a lifetime’s worth of natural chemistry that is captivating to watch. Shot in black and white as a nod to Sr.’s early work, the film intersperses documentary action with clips from the esteemed director’s catalog. It captures the strange fixations that have always made Sr.’s films so curious — when Sr. becomes fixated on a family of ducks, they end up in the final film, and when he asks (for reasons unexplained) his celebrity son to sing a German folk song for the camera, Jr. does so in hilarious fashion. 

But what starts as something of a buddy comedy between father and son transforms into something deeper and more difficult as the film progresses: Sr., who suffers from Parkinson’s, is nearing the end of his life, and the movie tenderly documents not only his final days, but his son’s emotional reaction to the prospect of losing his father, making for some incredibly raw and moving scenes in the film. Poignantly, it is the creation of the film “Sr.” itself that gives the countercultural director energy in his waning days, and there are shots of him enthusiastically dictating edits while lying down, mostly immobile, that are about as great a case for the power of art to keep us vital as can be seen.