The film's working premise -- that the first 21 years of an artist's career define his career -- is an artificial self-imposition. But Dunaway and Wood toss out that analytic structure from the start.

An amiable but wholly unnecessary movie that plays like a feature-length version of those reels one watches while eating rubbery chicken at a banquet honoring a much-loved artist.

Feels slapped together, something you'd see at an awards dinner, save for the dippy cartoon segments, which considering the subject's creative use of animation ("A Scanner Darkly"), undercut every anecdotal stab at thoughtful analysis.

The resulting tribute may be a puff piece, but it's also informative and often entertaining.