Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy is a 2022 American documentary film, written, directed, and produced by Nancy Buirski. It is loosely based on and inspired by Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel.

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nancy Buirski
Written by	Nancy Buirski
Produced by	Nancy Buirski Simon Kilmurry Susan Margolin
Starring	Bob Balaban Ian Buruma Michael Childers
Cinematography	Rex Miller
Edited by	Anthony Ripoli
Production companies	Augusta Films Foothill Productions Cineflix Productions Artemis Rising Drymen Pictures St. Marks Productions
Distributed by	Zeitgeist Films Kino Lorber
Release dates	September 1, 2022 (2022-09-01) (Venice) June 23, 2023 (2023-06-23)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$55,124[1][2]

It had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2022, and was released on June 23, 2023, by Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber. It was shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards,^[3] but it was not nominated.^[4]

Plot

The film follows the journey of making and producing Midnight Cowboy (1969), as well as the era the movie was released in.^[5]

Cast

• Bob Balaban
• Ian Buruma
• Michael Childers
• Brian De Palma
• J. Hoberman
• Adam Holender
• Charles Kaiser
• Jennifer Salt
• Lucy Sante (as Luc Sante)
• Brenda Vaccaro
• Jon Voight
• Edmund White

Production

In May 2021, it was announced Nancy Buirski would direct a documentary film revolving around Midnight Cowboy, based upon the book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic by Glenn Frankel.^[6]

Buriski reached out to cast members from Midnight Cowboy, with Sylvia Miles passing away, and Dustin Hoffman being unavailable to interview.^[7][8]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2022.^[9][10] It also screened at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2022.^[11] In March 2023, Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber acquired distribution rights to the film.^[12]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 33 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "As engrossing as it is ambitious, Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy contextualizes a landmark film within the pivotal moment of its creation."^[13] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[14]