Dominick Dunne: After the Party

There's a valedictory feel to this documentary about the writer Dominick Dunne (who died at the age of 83 in August 2009). Dunne first had a career as a Hollywood producer and man-about-town before becoming a novelist (in his mid-50s) and, more influentially, a writer for Vanity Fair. He became especially known for reporting on crime among the rich and famous, a topic he was drawn to after the murder of his daughter, actress Dominique Dunne, in 1982. This film by Australians Kirsty de Garis and Timothy Jolley is structured around Dunne's coverage of the first murder trial of music mogul Phil Spector in 2007. The filmmakers follow Dunne from the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, where he's reporting on the trial, to his country home in Connecticut, to his rooftop apartment in Manhattan. But that footage is only a springboard for a portrait of Dunne's entire life and career, narrated mostly through interview segments with the man himself (mellowed from his earlier persona but still showing a penchant for smugness and inveterate name-dropping). Dunne's anecdotes are supplemented by archival footage, stills, clips from films and television programs, and observations from family and acquaintances, including his son, actor Griffin Dunne; his sister-in-law, writer Joan Didion; Hollywood wunderkind Robert Evans; and reporter Liz Evans. The picture that emerges includes criticism (though not from members of the Kennedy family, who had strenuously objected to Dunne's treatment of the Michael Skakel and William Kennedy Smith cases), and doesn't ignore his fall from grace at Vanity Fair after his shoddy reporting on Congressman Gary Condit's alleged involvement in the disappearance of Chandra Levy, although the film is more sympathetic to its subject than not. DVD extras include interviews with the filmmakers. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)