Call Me Kate isn’t as much of a revelation as the star it’s portraying, but of course, it’s still lovely to talk about the incredible Katharine Hepburn. Revealing new footage from one of Hepburn’s close friends, and contextualized with interviews with some of the few remaining people that were close with her, the documentary goes through her life, with a focus more on what she felt about it. Certain letters are read by a voice impressionist, which creates a bit of an uncanny valley, and the way the footage was arranged and organized can be strange. However, Call Me Kate is still able to capture what makes Katharine Hepburn so captivating.

With newly discovered footage regarding Katharine Hepburn, it was inevitable to create a documentary to make sense of what was revealed. Call Me Kate takes the available audio and video from Hepburn’s close friend Glenn Plaskin, and director Lorna Tucker is able to invite great interviewees to help contextualize this footage, like film critics, people who have worked on the same productions, and most notably of all, her nephew Mundy Hepburn. That being said, with the large selection of footage, Tucker doesn’t really take a new documentary approach. Call Me Kate doesn’t really reveal anything that would be surprising for avid fans, but it’s still an decent introduction for viewers wanting to watch her work.