A new documentary about Mailer, directed by Jeff Zimbalist, achieves both of these aims. The title itself captures the balancing act Zimbalist is attempting: How to Come Alive With Norman Mailer (A Cautionary Tale). What caution does a tour of Mailer’s explosive existence suggest? Is it a caution against being someone like Norman Mailer, a man who held onto lit matches as long as possible no matter how often he was burned, or is it Mailer’s own words of caution for us about the need to be unafraid, to offend freely, a posthumous bannerman in the fight against the censoriousness that has swept through the American left and right? Which is it? And can it be both?