If, initially, I am not quite sure what to do with the knowledge that Val Kilmer has “amassed thousands of hours of footage” shot over 40 years, my being nonplussed is part and parcel of his oddball status—this is a guy whose latter-day passion project is a self-penned one-man show on Mark Twain. Though we mix and match iconic roles with a sad awareness of his time in the VOD trenches, Kilmer remains all the more sui generis for that combination.

Needless to say a documentary has emerged from it: Val, which premieres at the new, auteur-focused Cannes Premiere sidebar. Kilmer is, I suppose, the auteur in question, though said documentary is finally credited to Leo Scott and Ting Poo, whose work editing the decades of material with Tyler Pharo is on display in a first trailer. All looks fascinating and a worthwhile summation of this inscrutable career; better yet...