Cert 15
87 mins
BBFC advice: Contains a suicide scene
I can't remember seeing a movie which had a greater insight into the music industry than this.
Jonathan Holiff's film is a devastatingly honest account of the hell-raising years at which Johnny Cash was at the peak of his fame.
It comes through the eyes of his late manager - Holiff's father Saul - from whom his son had been estranged for most of his life.
Holiff's story is almost as remarkable as Cash's.
His father committed suicide in 2005, having never reconciled with a son with whom he struggled to get on.
Upon his death, Jonathan was given a key to his private storage room.
When he finally opened it, he discovered, amid the gold records which he had no idea his father had kept, diaries, recordings and telegrams which gave a perfect chronicle of Saul's years with the country music singer.
They also laid bare Saul's own flawed character and his regrets over his relationship with his two sons.
From what he discovered, Jonathan has created a superb dual biopic of Cash and his father, weaving together real voice recordings, concert and film footage and dramatisations of actual events.
It chronicles Saul's life from the financial traumas when he was growing up in the 1930s to becoming a 1950s entrepreneur.
From the moment he met Cash they had a love-hate relationship - largely because of the singer's heavy drinking and drug-taking.
This made him incredibly unreliable, cancelling virtually as many concerts as he played.
But Saul persevered with him and, at least for a few golden years, his determination paid off - only for their relationship to come undone again when Cash turned to God.
The reason that My Father And The Man In Black works so brilliantly is a combination of the rich source material and the fact that Jonathan Holiff has been so open about his family.
I hope his reward comes with great success for his movie.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 9/10