Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

Most people probably know Selby through the (justly-acclaimed) film versions of his two most famous novels, LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. But the excellence of these two movies will never replace the jaw-droppingly-amazing achievements of Selby's prose -- as this documentary ably and evocatively proves. Fearless, passionate, and wildly experimental (the very title of this documentary is a reference to Selby's completely original style of punctuation/grammar), Selby -- somewhat surprisingly -- was also a writer who, while wallowing among the dregs of society and dredging up its truths, somehow emerges, at the end of the day, as the most life-affirming literary personage imaginable. It's an alchemy that was all Selby's own, and this documentary is a must-see for anyone and everyone intrigued by the intermingling of words, storytelling, and spirituality in our contemporary world.

Director Michael W. Dean really exposes the heart and soul of one of America's most brilliant dark and gritty authors. The film features some of the many actors, writers, musicians and brilliant minds who were inspired by Selby's genius. Narrated by Robert Downey Junior, this film is a must have for any documentary movie collection.

This is intriguing because the subject matter--Selby--is inherently fascinating. However, this is not a well made doc. It's rather slapdash, haphazard, leaves a lot of questions unanswered and even unasked. For rabid devotees only.

I saw this film in the theater and I couldn't wait to be able to purchase it on DVD. It would've been nice to have been able to meet Cubby Selby in person - the directors, Kenneth Shiffrin and Michael W. Dean, did more than deliver a film - they create an outlet for us all to spend a moment with this unsung artist.The insight this movie gives into the world of Cubby Selby is pretty astonishing. I certainly wasn't expecting to be handed keys to his creative process while simultaneously being uplifted by the journey of this absolute spiritual being who was unapologetically human.Cause for both tears and laughter... this film will touch your heart.

This is the 4th copy of this DVD that I've purchased; I've loaned the others out over the past few years & not received them back. this is part of my life, & I need to have it near me.

This is an informative look inside one of the most talented but tortured writers of our time. If you're a fan of his books then this is a no brainer.

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Hubert "Cappy" Selby, Jr. doesn't have the name recognition in the US that an author of his caliber deserves. One of the things "It/ll be Better Tomorrow"* tries to do is to suggest an explanation for this: that Selby's vision of American life was just too bleak for mainstream Americans to stomach. "America," as one of the film's interviewees remarks, "is the happiness machine. Americans don't want to believe that Selby's descriptions are accurate." Selby himself said that the American dream was all about "getting things," and his rage at what he saw as the hypocrisy of such a lifestyle was part of the reason he once described himself as "a scream looking for a mouth."Selby was a Brooklyn kid who joined the Merchant Marines when he was 15 (during WWII), contracted tuberculosis, endured a four-year stint in hospitals and multiple surgeries, and suffered bad health for the rest of his life. Hospital morphine led to heroin and alcohol addition, which Selby finally kicked only at the age of 40. Even after the publication of his best and most lucrative novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn, his years of addiction reduced him at times to penury. So there were very personal reasons for his rage as well.Selby's typewriter became the mouth through which he screamed. In his novels and short stories he created worlds in which alienation, grime, violence, frustrated love, and betrayal were given centerstage. As a longtime friend remarks in the film, Selby "takes you to a world you really don't want to be in. He makes you live there. It's claustrophobic." His books so shocked and outraged conventional sensibilities that they generated two obscenity trials. (Billy Graham especially went after Selby.) The more famous one, in England, was eventually won on appeal by John Mortimer of "Rumpole" fame, and established a landmark precedent in regards to freedom of expression."It/ll be Better Tomorrow" goes to great pains to claim that underneath all of the rage and bleakness of Selby's work was a great spirituality of hope (the word "spiritual" is used on numerous occasions throughout the film), a conviction that even though we go through the fire, we somehow usually manage to limp through to the other side. But it's not clear to me that the film defends this claim. Except for Selby's final and uneven novel, The Willow, there seems little evidence of hope or redemption in the worlds he creates. Characters generally end up where they began: in an exitless limbo.And this suggests an additional reason why Selby isn't a better known author in the US: he's no more a fun read than, say, Beckett. His innovative style may inspire us, and his dark rendering of the American dream may sober us enough to prompt self-examination. But at the same time, most of us, if we're honest, would probably admit to feeling oppressed when reading him. This isn't a criticism so much as an observation. But it's an observation which the film, otherwise so insightful, refuses to make._________* One of Selby's many punctuational idiosyncracies was a refusal to use apostrophes. Thus the "I/ll" rather than "I'll" in the film's title.