Review: Documentary 'Voyeur' follows author Gay Talese's path to controversy

Review: Documentary ‘Voyeur’ follows author Gay Talese’s path to controversy

By Sheri Linden

Nov. 30, 2017 1 PM PT

As writer Gay Talese entered his 80s, he didn’t exactly need a bestseller, let alone a book that some would regard as a splotch on his reputation. A leading figure of New Journalism, his credentials were long established, and his Manhattan brownstone and bespoke suits attest to his material success. But after convincing editors he was on to something, he focused his energies — if not his investigative fine-tooth comb — on “The Voyeur’s Motel,” the story of Colorado motel owner Gerald Foos, who spied on hundreds of guests over many years.

In their fascinating and frustrating documentary “Voyeur,” directors Myles Kane and Josh Koury chronicle the lead-up to the publication of the 2016 book, which hit shelves amid a storm of controversy. Talese’s dependence on a single, unreliable narrator would tip the project toward debacle. Like him, the filmmakers don’t push too hard; the same questions raised by the book remain glaringly unanswered.

Foos insists that the hours he spent crouched over specially constructed ceiling vents watching guests having sex made him a researcher, not a pervert. Talese assures an editor that the guy’s not a creep; her skepticism is clear even before she uses the word “sociopath.”

Kane and Koury lean too hard on facile observations of journalism as voyeurism. But they tap a more productive vein in the weird chemistry between the two men, their seesawing levels of trust amped by the pointed, often wordless commentary from Foos’ wife, Anita. In that discomfortingly close range between the unlikeliest of friends, and between rapture and repulsion, the film finds its compelling edge.

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