Vague Visages’ Beyond the Gaze review contains minor spoilers. Jill Campbell’s 2024 documentary (released theatrically in 2025) on Amazon features Jule Campbell, Walter Iooss Jr. and MJ Day. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

As a teenage and media-obsessed boy in early 90s America, Jule Campbell caught my attention with her creative approach for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The founding editor’s mix of athletic models, exotic locations and naturalistic photography opened my eyes to a world beyond small town Minnesota. Jill Campbell’s Beyond the Gaze turns back the clock for a nearly pitch-perfect study of Campbell’s career as she approaches her 96th birthday.

Directed by the subject’s (filmmaker) daughter, Beyond the Gaze frequently strays from a chronological timeline as 95-year-old Jule navigates her Flemington, New Jersey farm home. These sequences produce the most poignant moments as the former SI editor recalls her rise through a boys’ club, and also struggles with her memory while anticipating death. The legendary Jule talks about wanting to be an artist as a young woman and how she was afraid of sex, which in turn benefits various sequences about her edgy innovations with the SI swimsuit issue, starting with Cheryl Tiegs’ now-iconic fishnet photo from a 1978 shoot in Brazil. Beyond the Gaze effectively links the past and present timelines to accentuate the subject’s commitment to her craft and models.

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Beyond the Gaze features fascinating interviews with numerous SI swimsuit models, such as Tyra Banks, Christie Brinkley, Kathy Ireland, Elle Macpherson, Paulina Porizkova, Roshumba Williams, Stacey Williams and the aforementioned Tiegs. However, a stronger male presence would’ve added more depth. It’s understandable that the director would choose to celebrate her mother and closest companions, yet audiences could better understand the subject’s career arc with a more balanced storytelling approach. Jule’s son, Bruce, appears briefly to discuss his difficult childhood, while journalist Mark Mulvoy offers a bit of insight about the evolution of SI. And though photographer Walter Iooss Jr. gets emotional about the way executives treated the subject on her way out, he surprisingly refuses to expand on the topic. Subsequently, viewers must sort through a family-friendly narrative that touches upon misogyny in the American media industry without calling anyone out specifically.

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In Beyond the Gaze, the subject describes old age as “cruel and beautiful.” This phrase encapsulates the director’s b-narrative about a woman facing the realities of death. As Jule worries about seeing loved ones for the last time, an especially heartbreaking sequence featuring the two Williams models shows how much respect they have for their former SI editor. And in perhaps the director’s most bold filmmaking decision, she keeps the camera rolling as her mother fails to identify her grandson — a gut punch of a moment that will surely resonate with viewers for different reasons. It’s an unfortunate reminder that Father Time comes for us all.

Beyond the Gaze released digitally on November 11, 2025

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film essays at Vague Visages.

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