AllMovie

You've seen gravelly-voice actor/singer Tom Waits in meaty dramatic roles in such films as The Fisher King (1989), At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). And you've heard his compositions on the soundtracks of films like Divine Madness (1980), Wolfen (1981) and Let's Get Lost (1988). The 1988 documentary Big Time combines the vocal and visual Tom Waits, endeavoring to juxtapose glimpses of Waits in concert with staged dramatic scenes, allegedly inspired by his songs. Waits himself assumes several wacky characterizations during the fictional sequences. The "real" scenes in Big Time were filmed during a Waits concert at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre.