Even though I’m a huge fan of classic science fiction, somehow I’ve never gotten around to reading much Harlan Ellison. Sure, I’ve seen the Star Trek episode he wrote and even some of the stuff he penned for the Outer Limits, but for the most part he’s just never appealed to me. It doesn’t help that he has a reputation as something of a dick. A reputation which, after watching the latest documentary to tackle his life, I’m now convinced is very much deserved.

Dreams With Sharp Teeth makes no attempt to soften Harlan Ellison’s abrasive, crotchety, attack dog personality, even though it’s obvious that the movie must have been made by Ellison fans. But just because he’s kind of an asshole doesn’t mean he isn’t right and more often than not, even when he’s ripping some poor kid to shreds, Harlan is dead on.

If like me you’re not already familiar with Ellison’s work, don’t let that keep you away from Dreams. Ellison’s personality is electric, and even if you have no idea who that guy is up there on screen screaming down at you, you’ll be locked in the entire time you’re watching him. For you Ellison newbies out there though, here’s the skinny: Harlan Ellison is one of the fathers of modern science fiction, a master not just of that genre but of the written word. He’s won more awards than just about any living American writer, and he’s also an angry, ranting, rabble rouser. He’s kind of like Science Fiction’s Hunter S. Thompson, except without Thompson’s penchant for suicidal substance abuse.

The movie interweaves the story of his life with sequences in which Ellison growls out some of the most significant passages from his well-awarded work. What makes Dreams with Sharp Teeth so interesting though, is that unlike a lot of other documentaries on literary subjects it seeks to find the place where his past and his life’s work intersect. Dreams does a magnificent job of using all of that to try and understand what makes Harlan Ellison tick, and by the end we’ve all got a pretty good idea.
Along the way, director Erik Nelson ropes noteworthy Ellison fans and friends into talking about him. Robin Williams for instance shows up, and while he sometimes forgets he’s not doing standup, his tour of Ellison’s eccentric, Mayan ruins inspired house is a riot. More interesting though are the other writers who bow at Ellison’s alter. His worshippers include just about every writer I’ve ever loved. Neil Gaiman, Peter David, and Dan Simmons all show up in the film to simultaneously pay homage to Harlan and talk about how absolutely fucking crazy the guy is.

I may have avoided Harlan Ellison till now, but when Gaiman, David, and Simmons all tell me someone is good, I believe it. Dreams With Sharp Teeth makes a pretty good case for Ellison being one of America’s greatest geniuses, and also one of our most fascinatingly brilliant jerks. Whether you love, hate, or are utterly indifferent to Ellison and his work, you won’t want to miss his documentary. Like Harlan himself, it has sharp teeth.

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