‘Joyce Carol Oates’ Review: What’s She Thinking?

It’s a modern-day tragedy that some individuals might know the author Joyce Carol Oates primarily for her on-line presence — on social media, she has posted an image of her foot oozing with blisters, and often voiced inflammatory opinions. It’s odd — and oddly fascinating — conduct for such a literary heavyweight, one whose six many years of novels, brief tales, essays and extra have triggered fascinating debates concerning the intersection of violence, sexuality, race and womanhood (amongst different darkish, distinctly American topics).

There’s a lot to chew on concerning the author, now 85. Too dangerous the documentary “Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind” solely nibbles. Directed by Stig Björkman and narrated by Laura Dern, this documentary is so fixated on enshrining Oates throughout the canon of American literary giants that it skirts across the peculiarity and provocation of her concepts.

Björkman presents one thing like a glorified Wikipedia article. He identifies key moments in Oates’s life (her marriages, her upbringing in rural New York) and too cleanly hyperlinks them to the books that got here out of them. For occasion, “Them,” Oates’s 1969 masterwork, is defined as merely a response to the 1967 riots in Detroit. What’s extra, Björkman is tired of showcasing the great thing about Oates’s prose or her usually risqué pursuits — Oates’s Marilyn Monroe novel, “Blonde,” turns into a neutered feminist assertion piece slightly than the abject story of mythmaking that it’s.

An prolonged interview with Oates is woven all through, although the tight-lipped author doesn’t take care of confessions. If Björkman’s breakdown is annoyingly textbook, he at the least permits us to bask within the author’s uncanny presence. We take a look at Oates, her pursed lips and barely dazed eyes, and may’t assist however ask: What is she considering?

Joyce Carol Oates: A Body within the Service of Mind
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters and accessible to hire or purchase on most main platforms.