Review: ‘Leacock’ portrayed as a man of action and insight

Richard Leacock is a towering figure in the world of non-fiction filmmaking, best known for his involvement in seminal documentary films such as “Primary” and “Monterey Pop” and the movement of observational style known as direct cinema or cinéma vérité.

In “Ricky on Leacock” Leacock’s former student Jane Weiner mixes together interviews, archival material and casual footage of Leacock that crosses decades to create a film that is as much a portrait of aging as it is of the man himself.

Leacock is first seen in the film working in a field, cutting through tall grass, and that sense of labor, the reward of doing, pulses through the film. Even in candid moments Leacock always seems busy somehow. Often he’s seen happily cooking and talking in a cramped kitchen.

He comes across as the very ideal of what a documentarian should be, a no-nonsense combination of insight and action.

Leacock passed away in 2011 at age 89, and watching him age over the course of the film, particularly as his voice softens from a booming baritone to a less forceful instrument, adds an intriguing undercurrent.

“Ricky on Leacock” is a warm, affectionate, lionizing tribute to a man who likely deserves one. Yet one wonders if Leacock himself would have approved — he might have found it to be a little too grandiose and would have continued to look for something more deeply perceptive, waiting for a bolder truth to emerge.

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“Ricky on Leacock” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes. At Laemmle’s NoHo 7, North Hollywood.