Movie Review: The Other Fellow

The Other Fellow entertainingly documents the world of the other “James Bonds” out there.
by Jeremy Fogelman

Cast: Gunnar James Bond Schäfer, James Alexander Bond, James Bond Jr., Gregory Itzin, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Tacey Adams, Matthew Bauer, James Bond, Chae-Jamal McFarlane, James Bond
Rating: ★★★

When I was in college, there was an RA in our dorm named “James Bond” and I always thought it was kind of funny, especially because there had already been so many movies by that point that it felt like it had to be intentional on the part of the parents -- but I never found out that backstory. As it turns out, people seem to just like naming their kids that name and there are a lot more than you’d think.

The Other Fellow is a documentary from director Matthew Bauer and isn’t about James Bond, the fictional superspy -- at least not directly. It’s instead about the world of people that share his name, either accidentally or on purpose. Because of that, the movie boasts an amusing list of credits with a lot of people named “James Bond’ (or similarly). But the film is more about how the name has or hasn’t affected than anything about the movies.

The name was used by Ian Fleming based on a real life ornithologist but picked also because it felt like such an ordinary name -- as interesting as the name has become now, James is a common first name and ‘Bond’ a fairly common last name. The documentary goes around the world to show us markedly different examples of people using the same name.

We spend a bit of time with everyone from a Swedish man who legally changed his name and models his life around living the ‘superspy’ lifestyle, to a black man in the US imprisoned and charged with murder. There are a bunch of interesting comparisons back and forth -- like how a white James Bond and a black James Bond describe markedly different experiences with cops, and how as opposed to the Swedish superfan, a NYC theater director would like nothing better than to pretend the movies never existed.

These men are all the “other fellow”, the title taken from a quip in the Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service when George Lazenby took over, albeit very briefly, from Sean Connery to play James Bond just once. Some of these James Bonds delight in the name, some don’t care except as a curiosity, and others have great disdain for it.

The movie also takes a fascinating detour with an unnamed woman living in the UK who escaped an abusive relationship and utilizes the name James Bond in a surprising but actually emotionally affecting revelation. This is one of the fascinating notes of the film, which balances a lot of the humorous aspect of the concept with a lot of legitimately dark moments.

I’m a bit of a hard sell for a documentary, because a lot of them can be basically Wikipedia articles with a budget, but this one does accomplish something interesting as Matthew Bauer went out to gather stories about the Bonds out there, cherry picking the most interesting ones here to compare and contrast against.

The theme is more about how these people share a commonality that’s a common name, yet the name is bigger than any of them -- and how they navigate using their name when it’s one of the most recognizable fictional names in the world. It’s a pretty entertaining, well-handled documentary, and at a brisk 80 minutes long, doesn’t overstay its welcome. Definitely worth a watch if the idea seems intriguing, and some storylines here will definitely stick with you.

The Other Fellow has a run time of 1 hour 20 minutes and is not rated. The film is playing in select theaters and is available through various streaming service. See links below.