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\u201cSly\u201d has been criticized for being too generous to its star. Reviewing the film<\/a> for The Guardian, Charles Bramesco wrote that \u201cpuff pieces don\u2019t get much puffier than this,\u201d and lambasted Zimny for his \u201chindering obsequiousness.\u201d While Stallone is open about his past and his feelings, the film doesn\u2019t spend an especially long time on his cinematic failures. Critically maligned vehicles like \u201cStop! Or My Mom Will Shoot\u201d are glossed over, and few of the talking heads have anything really negative to say.<\/p>\n Zimny insisted that he was not obliged to defer to Stallone. \u201cThere was never notes from him,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, he\u2019d watch the film and come back and express that he was really happy with it. You\u2019re working with someone to give you space to make a film better.\u201d In the documentary, Stallone is shown as a frequent tinkerer who constantly altered scripts, changed endings and improvised dialogue during shoots. Zimny said that desire for control wasn\u2019t evident here. \u201cI completely acknowledge that the story of \u2018Sly\u2019 contradicts the experience that I had as a documentary filmmaker,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pete Nicks, the director of the recent Apple TV+ film \u201cStephen Curry: Underrated,\u201d about the Golden State Warriors point guard, said that \u201ccelebrity is a veneer,\u201d and explained, \u201cFor documentarians, our craft is about pushing past that veneer.\u201d Celebrity subjects, he said, inevitably have handlers, managers and representatives, and it can be a challenge for filmmakers \u201cto work within that and still find authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n Curry\u2019s production company, Unanimous, was among the film\u2019s backers, though as Nicks was quick to clarify, Curry himself was not a credited producer. Nicks said that he had some creative disagreements with the company about the direction of the movie. For instance, Curry\u2019s people wanted to include interviews with Barack Obama and Drake, but Nicks wanted to include only people who fit organically.<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s hard to deny that the film presents an overwhelmingly positive depiction of its subject. \u201cUnderrated\u201d is continually reminding us that Curry beat the odds, overcame doubts, achieved greatness despite reservations. Even the title seems self-mythologizing. \u201cThe notion that Curry remains an underdog is humorous to contemplate when you consider that his production company is called Unanimous, so named for the fact that Curry is the only player in the history of the N.B.A. to have received a unanimous vote for the M.V.P. Award,\u201d Jennifer Wilson wrote in The New Republic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n