Six by Sondheim

This is one of the best movies about the artistic process I've seen--a film that can engross and illuminate even if you know nothing of Sondheim.

Riveting, important and lots of fun.

Lapine uses a half-dozen of Sondheim's most notable songs as a springboard for a biographical study that's contemplative, analytical and transcendentally emotional.

Despite the music in James Lapine's documentary, Six By Sondheim, it is archival clips of Mr. Sondheim describing how he writes that make the film a treasure.

Sondheim’s frequent collaborator James Lapine directs, and he does an excellent job of stitching together interviews from more than four decades, including ones with Mike Douglas and Diane Sawyer, to form a portrait of the composer as both a young and an old man.

Six By Sondheim is just barely more than the sum of its parts, but when it finally adds up, it feels like many of the master’s best songs and shows: a puzzle that assembles itself right in front of your eyes.

Sondheim comes off as distant and a bit cool here, reluctant to make eye contact and often speaking with a professorial air even when he’s talking about himself. But what most people want in Sondheim isn’t a drinking buddy. It’s a musical composer, and in that he qualifies on all counts.