Comedian
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Movie Reviews of Comedian
Movie Review: If your doing stand-up...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm doing stand-up comedy.
Let me tell you, this movie is a bible for anyone who wants to know how Seindfeld become funny.
Really interesting documentary
Movie Review: Success=99% work, 1% genius
Summary: 5 Stars
I appreciate how hard Seinfeld continues to work on his craft and the DVD has a really funny interview with Seinfeld and Glick. Highly recommend watching it.Movie Review: Remarkably surprised by this one...
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife is a Seinfeld fanatic. It used to get on my nerves ('honey, life is not a Seinfeld episode' I would tell her) and it took me some time to warm up to the show. After all, the characters are really just neurotic, selfish, and insensitive to anybody and everybody (which, ironically, is the shows saving grace). But it obviously worked because it was successful and is funny. In the later years it got to be a bit over the top and lost its charm. And it is this that Seinfeld realized. I believe this is why he wanted to get back to standup.Seinfeld attempted, apparently quite live before the camera, what few comedians do. He wiped out his material that had taken him so many years to develop. He literally scratched it and began anew. It is this aspect that is most intriguing about the film. We see Seinfeld forget his material, we see him performing in small clubs and we see very human emotions eminate from him in regards to actually struggling to begin again. In a paradox, his status helps him get in the doors of clubs that no names would have a difficult time getting into but his big name also works against him in terms of expectation. You really can't go back again. But it gives great insight into what makes him so unique and so good at comedy. It really is serious business.
I give this four stars because Orny, the other comedian shown in the film, is just plain annoying. I never found him funny and his neuroses are so over the top and so out in the open that it becomes painful to watch him. I don't know if that was the point or if they merely had to include him because they had followed him for so long. Either way, it's a drag. Perhaps I am being too harsh and it does provide another view into what it's like to rise from being nobody to actually making a name for yourself in the comedy circuit.
If you are interested in what's behind the Seinfeld mystique, it's a great place to visit. Cameo appearacnes by other famous comedians adds to the film's depth. These are very real people and it's refreshing. It's not polished and it isn't Seinfeld the sitcom. It's a documentary but it's well worth it.
Movie Review: a sharp and stinging piece of business
Summary: 4 Stars
"Comedian" chronicles Jerry Seinfeld's return to the comedy club circuit after dismantling his sitcom in 1998 and retiring his well-honed live routines in the HBO special "I'm Telling You For The Last Time."And though the documentary has lots of stand-up comedy, as well as appearances by comics such as Chris Rock, Jay Leno, Garry Shandling, Robert Klein and Bill Cosby, this is not really a concert movie. It's actually a glimpse into the business of entertaining and the process behind making an audience laugh. "Comedian" is a funny movie, but it's really more about the humor of anxiety and self-doubt than punch lines.
Shot on digital video by Christian Charles (who directed Seinfeld's snappy American Express commercials) and crammed with excellent jazz and pop music, the movie follows Seinfeld and a young comic named Orny Adams as they hit the road, work on new material and perform on "Late Night With David Letterman." Adams -- keyed-up and hypersensitive -- doesn't fare as well as Jerry but given that he's sharing space in a movie with one of the most popular television personalities in history, he kind of has the deck stacked against him.
And yes, Seinfeld, after being out of the spotlight for a while, does remain an interesting personality, even more so when caught on a relatively candid camera (Jerry curses?). His backstage conversations with Leno, Cosby, Rock and Colin Quinn reveal a guarded camaraderie, and fans who spent a significant chunk of the '90s chuckling at the misadventures of Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine will probably find it amusing that Seinfeld still actively worries he'll bomb in front of a crowd.
But for all Seinfeld's agonized fretting over writing jokes and winning the audience's approval, anybody who puts in 40-plus hours a week at an office probably won't find much sympathy for a guy who has been given hundreds of millions of dollars doing the very thing he loves to do.
Nevertheless, "Comedian" is a sharp, insightful, wry and occasionally stinging piece of business.
Movie Review: Stars Made of Flesh and Blood.
Summary: 4 Stars
Despite the confidence that most comedians project, this documentary showcases the fact that these often brilliant performers suffer from the same type of maladies as the rest of us. They are filled with anxiety, irritability, and ambition. By focusing on a legend, Jerry Seinfeld, and an unknown, Orny Adams, the audience discerns some of these characteristics and others which result in greatness on the stage. Examples evident are the need for compulsive attention to detail along with personal obsession over delivery and rehearsal. It's hard to imagine anyone going anywhere in that business without the concentrated efforts we witness here. It's surprising to find Adams watching tapes of himself and filling notebooks copiously with jokes and material.
Seinfeld is probably the most talented comedian that I've ever seen, but I never had any idea just how much effort he puts into his work. He labors for six months building, writing and performing until he becomes confident in the new shtick he has created. Even then we find that he is not satisfied. He is an intense perfectionist as is Adams, but the younger man is far less healthy than Seinfeld. Jerry may joke about neurosis but Adams appears to be the genuine article. He is oversensitive, self-doubting, agitated, abrasive, and fairly depressed, yet in every scene he tries to sell us on why he is so great. He doesn't really believe it and neither do we. When George Shapiro decides to represent him, he tells Adams something to the effect of that he's going to be a big success but will forever remain unhappy. Without knowing him well, Shapiro has already mastered his client. After Adams laments to Seinfeld that he has not made it, the genius puts it all in perfect perspective by asking him what exactly what he'd rather be doing with his life. Adams can give no answer which is itself an excellent answer and reflective of why these fellows sacrifice so much for their vocations. This is one of those films that would be impossible to quit watching in the middle as every character is engaging at some level.