Review: 'Val' offers a deep portrait of the actor Val Kilmer

In his latest film, Val Kilmer gets an unusual screen credit for a bona fide Hollywood movie star: cinematographer

In his latest film, Val Kilmer gets an unusual screen credit for a bona fide Hollywood movie star: cinematographer. That's because the documentary “Val” is built on thousands of hours Kilmer filmed since he was a boy — growing up, on movie sets, in cars, in hospitals. This is a lifetime-in-the-making cinematographer’s credit. Thanks to Kilmer's relentless drive to document things, “Val” is a remarkably intimate film and a moving one, too. For a performer who has come off as chilly and difficult, this doc doesn't counter those perceptions as much as explain them. “I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed," he says toward the end. "And I am blessed.”