
Hollywood Icon’s Powerful Voice is Heard (Or Seen) In Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
Film Reviews
Sundance Film Review: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
Director: Shoshannah Stern
Cinetic Media
Premiere: 01.23
Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin has not only been an icon of modern cinema since 1986, but also an indelible part of the Sundance Film Festival. Whether it’s acting in the 2021 multi-award winner CODA, serving as a festival judge in 2024 or advocating for open captioned screenings, she’s left her mark on the festival. In Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, she lets us all in on the person behind the legend.
Marlee Matlin grew up in Illinois as the only deaf member of her hearing family, a reality shared by roughly 95% of Deaf individuals. In a childhood marked by isolation, as well as abuse from a babysitter and teacher, Matlin discovered a sense of belonging and joy performing at a local Deaf theater. After receiving life changing encouragement from actor Henry Winkler (Happy Days), she fully threw herself into acting, winning a lead role opposite William Hurt in Children of a Lesser God. At just 21 years old, Matlin made history in 1987 as the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award, catapulting her into the spotlight. Still, Matlin battled addiction, and her relationship with Hurt became mired by his jealousy, controlling nature and verbal, emotional and even sexual abuse. After ending the relationship, Matlin, who was dismissed by many as a sentimental winner who would never have a real career, proved everyone wrong by appearing in a wide variety of television and film and becoming an icon of the industry and a national treasure.
Director Shoshannah Stern, a Deaf actress inspired as a child by Matlin’s Oscar win to believe in her own potential as a Deaf actor, now makes her directorial debut with this intimate and heartfelt documentary. The film intertwines Matlin’s personal narrative with extensive archival footage and interviews, many of which are in American Sign Language (ASL). Stern and Matlin take an unflinching look at the ups and downs, including a major backlash against Matlin by the Deaf community when she chose to speak aloud without signing when presenting the Oscar for Best Actor in 1988. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore delves into the issue of language deprivation as a young Deaf person who is limited in learning by what is presented directly to her. Unable to learn about the world around her by listening in and absorbing, Matlin had never heard of domestic abuse and many other difficult realities that would impact her life, and the film is both heartbreaking and inspiring in its frank depiction of her struggles and triumphs.
The choice to present so much of the film in ASL is magnificent, and the archival footage, mixed with clips from Children of A Lesser God highlight the problematic elements of a film that was ultimately aimed at hearing audiences and told through a hearing perspective, is quite effective. Even more effective is the use of footage from the film to highlight Matlin’s tumultuous relationship with Hurt. The film does a struggle a bit with some pacing issues and a tendency to repeat clips, and first time director Stern tries to balance a lots of stories in a short amount of time and doesn’t always succeed. Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is still a riveting look at a remarkable person and an entire way of living that many of us don’t even try to understand.
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is an emotional journey that honors its extraordinary subject with sensitivity and grace, and it gets a strong recommendation from me — not only as essential viewing for fans of one of the most powerful and influential voices of our time, but for anyone who wants to learn and better understand how our differences and similarities influence how we all experience life. —Patrick Gibbs
Read more of SLUG’s coverage of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.