BEFORE: I like to say that I don't take suggestions for what I include in the Movie Year, because stumbling on to films that I didn't know I needed to see is all part of the fun (and realizing how terrible some "must-see" films are definitely isn't). But the truth is that I take suggestions from everywhere - movie reviews, Netflix listings, IMDB recommendations, they all sort of seep in by osmosis, it seems. But when my wife mentions to me that she watched a documentary on Hulu about Gilbert Gottfried JUST after I put together my documentary chain that already had two films with him in them, that seems a bit like divine providence from the movie gods. Then when I mentioned my upcoming doc chain to my BFF, he said, "Oh, are you going to watch the one about Gilbert Gottfried?" Umm, sure, I was planning that all along. When two people whose opinions I respect recommend a film, it's probably a lock.
Gilbert Gottfried carries over again, of course, from "Life, Animated"
THE PLOT: A funny and unexpectedly poignant portrait of the life and career of one of comedy's most iconic figures, Gilbert Gottfried.
AFTER: The clips are standard, by now, of course - a filmmaker wouldn't be doing their due diligence if they didn't include clips from "Beverly Hills Cop 2", "Look Who's Talking 2" and "Problem Child 2". These were those first few film appearances Gilbert had, pre-Disney even, where people first started to notice him. If you ran a comedy franchise in the late 1980's or early 1990's you could do a lot worse than casting him in your second installment, especially if you were trying to justify making a third installment. If you watched a lot of late-night talk shows, especially Letterman's, you might have already known who he was, even if some of his stand-up routines left you scratching your head a little bit. Like Robin Williams before him, he was in the midst of doing something different that was sort of turning the genre on its ear.
Being the voice of cartoon birds, of course, was a game-changer for his career - first Iago in "Aladdin" and then a long-running stint as the voice of the AFLAC duck in commercials. Hey, if you can find your niche in this crazy business, more power to you. And voice-over work is a great gig, you show up, you don't even have to dress well, have a cup of tea to get your vocal cords warmed up, scream a couple of words into a microphone, and you're back on the street in an hour with check in hand. I've done that semi-professionally, I just don't have the time to pursue more voice-work outside my current circle of associates.
But in this documentary, we get to see what kind of apartment Gilbert's AFLAC money and Disney residuals have bought him, and it's a really nice one. And we get to meet his wife and kids, plus his two sisters, one of which was undergoing cancer treatments, and Gilbert spends time with her at the clinic, so there is a human side to this comedian known for his foul-mouthed jokes, it's just one that he rarely lets the audience see, for fear of being seen out of character. But I think by this point he's become so ingrained in the fabric of comedy that it would be hard to imagine that business without him. But show biz has tried, he's been blacklisted for everything from masturbation jokes at the Emmys to 9/11 jokes at a Comedy Central Roast, to twitter jokes made right after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. That cost him the AFLAC job, but he had a good long run - and that duck still sounds a lot like him, which makes me wonder if they're using a sound-alike, or just recycling old audio files.
But still he pops up again and again, as Abraham Lincoln in "A Million Ways to Die in the West", or as a rabbi on "Son of the Beach" or as Mr. Mxyzptlk in a Superman cartoon. Lately he's even been supplying the voice of Trump toady Jared Kushner on "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver". Why? Because it's funny to depict that, duh. And because his voice is instantly recognizable, even if he's not screaming - but it's funnier if he is.
We also learn that other comedians think he's notoriously cheap, a stereotype that is supported with footage of him taking a cheap Metrobus to a gig in another town, or getting all the free toiletries whenever he checks in to a hotel, including asking for "underarm" (does he not know the word "deodorant"?) and then later we see that his wife has filled bin after bin with hotel soaps, shampoos and toothbrushes that he brings home and refuses to throw away. We've all done it, just maybe not on that scale - when my wife and I went on our BBQ crawls across the South, I also accumulated a few shampoos for my travel bag. Life on the road for a comic also apparently means soaking his socks in the hotel sink, and that's something to think about in the future when you wonder how well they clean hotel rooms between guests.
Gilbert's also got a successful podcast these days, and we see him interviewing people like Jim Gaffigan, Richard Kind and even Dick Van Dyke. But I think it's true of any profession, if you hang around long enough, you're likely to get viewed as being part of the "old guard", even if you occasionally wake up and reflect on how you got to where you are, and maybe sometimes feel like an alien walking around in someone else's life. Gilbert doing a set at a military cosplay convention probably didn't help that feeling, since being surrounded by people wearing authentic Nazi uniforms gave him quite a start. His life sort of seems like an endless parade of bizarre encounters, but hey, that's the gig.
I've never seen him perform live, but I've seen him twice in the real world, at the premiere of the horrible Robin Williams film "What Dreams May Come", and once on the street in Manhattan. So I think I know what neighborhood he lives in, which means he's come a long way from Crown Heights, Brooklyn - more power to him.
Also starring Dave Attell (last seen in "Trainwreck"), Joy Behar (last seen in "Get Me Roger Stone"), Richard Belzer (last seen in "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work"), Lewis Black (last seen in "Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind"), Whoopi Goldberg (ditto), Jay Leno (ditto), Bill Burr (last seen in "The Front Runner"), Susie Essman (last seen in "The Last Laugh"), Judy Gold (ditto), Jeffrey Ross, (ditto), Alan Zweibel (ditto), Jim Gaffigan (last seen in "Super Troopers 2"), Arlene Gottfried, Dara Gottfried, Karen Gottfried, Lily Gottfried, Max Gottfried, Arsenio Hall (last seen in "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey"), Anthony Jeselnik, Penn Jillette (last seen in "Sandy Wexler"), Richard Kind (last seen in "Suburbicon"), Artie Lange (last seen in "The Bachelor"), Howie Mandel, Patton Oswalt (last seen in "Keeping Up With the Joneses"), Joe Piscopo, Paul Provenza, Bob Saget, Dick Van Dyke (last seen in "Mary Poppins Returns") with archive footage of Harry Anderson (last seen in "She's Having a Baby"), Drew Carey (also last seen in "Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind"), Andrew Dice Clay (last seen in "A Star Is Born"), Chris Connelly, Jimmy Fallon (also last seen in "The Last Laugh"), Kathie Lee Gifford (also last seen in "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey"), Regis Philbin (ditto), Elisabeth Hasselbeck (also last seen in "Get Me Roger Stone"), Barbara Walters (ditto), Hugh Hefner (last seen in "Life Itself") Jimmy Kimmel (also last seen in "Sandy Wexler"), Jane Seymour (ditto), Alan King (last seen in "The Bonfire of the Vanities"), Robert Klein (last seen in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"), Cloris Leachman (last seen in "Music of the Heart"), David Letterman (last seen in "Jane Fonda in Five Acts"), Larry Miller (last seen in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"), Eddie Murphy (last seen in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"), Joe Pantoliano (last seen in "Ready to Rumble"), Markie Post, Robin Quivers, John Ritter (last seen in "The Prisoner of Second Avenue"), Rob Schneider (last seen in "Hype!"), John Stamos (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2"), Howard Stern, George Takei (last heard in "Mulan 2"), John Tesh, John Travolta (last seen in "The End of the Tour"), Brian Williams (last seen in "Fahrenheit 11/9"), Amy Yasbeck (last seen in "The Odd Couple II") Ray Bolger, Judy Garland (last seen in "Easter Parade"), Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Boris Karloff (last seen in "House of Dracula") and the voice of Jonathan Freeman (also carrying over from "Life, Animated")
RATING: 6 out of 10 vulgar Valentines Day cards
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