This article includes material from celebrity.land\u2019s weekly culture and entertainment newsletter, The Culture Catchall. <\/span><\/em>Click here to subscribe<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Celebrity self-portrait documentaries have always been a puzzling subgenre that tends to offer more than it can actually deliver when it comes to genuine displays of humanization. While most purport to be revealing and candid reflections of a famous subject, they often amount to disjointed pieces of a story, from which we never get a full sense, at least not an objective one.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Such is the case in \u201caka Charlie Sheen,\u201d Netflix\u2019s exhausting two-part documentary directed by Andrew Renzi, which sees the former \u201cTwo and a Half Men\u201d star open up about his ugly public truths \u2014 his drug addiction, wild lifestyle, the public spectacles, his disastrous fall from TV grace \u2014 and others he\u2019s yet to speak on until now. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The film, split into two 90-minute parts, is filled with unflinching revelations about Sheen\u2019s colorful past that started <\/span>making headlines before it even premiered<\/span><\/a> on Sept. 10. Publications have already rounded up the juiciest and most salacious tidbits revealed because they know that\u2019s exactly what people are tuning in for. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s understandable why the documentary is currently the No. 1 movie on Netflix. That\u2019s just the world we live in now. The metric isn\u2019t a measure of how well put together \u201caka Charlie Sheen\u201d actually is, but rather what piques audiences\u2019 interest these days, which, in Sheen\u2019s case, happens to be the darkest aspects of his life and career that he\u2019s still living in the shadow of.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But that\u2019s just one issue with his documentary. The other is what many celebrity docs that feature their subject often suffer from: the inability to relinquish control.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Sheen isn\u2019t credited as a producer on his film, he appears to steer the narrative as if he were one. A question Renzi poses at the top of Part 1 suggests so, as he curiously asks the actor, \u201cHow do you imagine structuring the story of Charlie Sheen?\u201d To which the latter breaks it down into three neat sections: \u201cPartying, partying with problems and then just problems.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And that\u2019s pretty much how the doc is organized, which says a lot about what Renzi \u2014 and Sheen \u2014 want us to know about the actor at this point in his life, now eight years sober and on a path toward self-forgiveness, <\/span>by his own account<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n To the director\u2019s credit, several figures in Sheen\u2019s life speak in the doc as well \u2014 including his older brother, Ramon Estevez; his childhood friend, Sean Penn; former \u201cTwo and a Half Men\u201d co-star Jon Cryer; his ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller; and even Heidi Fleiss, the Hollywood madam that Sheen (one of her former clients) testified against in her 1995 federal money laundering and tax evasion trial.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Richards makes it a point to share why she agreed to sit down for an interview, which is commendable to a degree when you think about the purpose of the film.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI want to peel the layers and be honest because, otherwise, this movie is going to be a fluffy, glossed-over, sugar-coated piece of shit,\u201d she says in Part 2.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n And while \u201caka Charlie Sheen\u201d is brutally honest in some respects, where seemingly no topic is off-limits, it still holds back when it shouldn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sure, there are poignant mentions of Sheen\u2019s childhood \u2014 growing up with his famous father, Martin Sheen, and older brother, Emilio Estevez (both of whom declined to participate in the film) \u2014 as well as his battles with sobriety and fatherhood. There are even interesting stories about the actor\u2019s professional pursuits, like the time he had to turn down the lead part in \u201cKarate Kid.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n However, much of the doc\u2019s <\/span>long<\/span><\/em> three-hour runtime is spent revisiting the most sensational parts of Sheen\u2019s life \u2014 the sex, drugs, partying and crashouts \u2014 leaving little room for depth, and even less for examining how Sheen, despite hitting rock bottom <\/span>multiple<\/span><\/em> times, has still managed to stage a comeback (or as he calls it, <\/span>a \u201creset\u201d<\/span><\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other stars, particularly those who aren\u2019t white men from successful families, aren\u2019t always afforded the same second chances. So how does Sheen reckon with that privilege?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Such nuanced queries don\u2019t make it into \u201caka Charlie Sheen,\u201d as it seems Renzi had other interests in mind, like making a film Sheen didn\u2019t even want to be a part of.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe did not want to make a documentary,\u201d the director told <\/span>Tudum<\/span><\/a>. \u201c[Sheen] was like, \u2018Why step into this arena in this way?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Sheen](\"https:\/\/img.huffingtonpost.com\/asset\/68c3489a180000fc648c7bc8.png?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp)
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