Year 16, Day 179 - 6/28/24 - Movie #4,769
BEFORE: We're one week into my Doc Block, which is also 9 films in, only about 1/4 of the way through, but let's check the stats. Kevin Hart is still leading this year with 9 appearances (only 1 is a doc) and after today's film, there's a tie for second place as Robert De Niro gets his 7th appearance (and 2nd doc) and ties with Mark Wahlberg (only 1 doc also). But moving into third today is David Letterman, with 6 appearances in 6 documentaries, he really could move up into the lead, I think. I'll check in again at the halfway point.
David Letterman carries over again from "Remembering Gene Wilder", and so do several other people. The docs have helped a lot of talk show hosts and comedians get their third or fourth appearance for the year, which means they'll make the year-end round-up. Johnny Carson, Julie Hagerty, Jon Hamm, Cloris Leachman, Bruce McGill, Chris Rock, David Spade and Sharon Stone all have four appearances thanks to the Doc Block.
THE PLOT: A documentary about the comedian and filmmaker Albert Brooks, which includes interviews with Sharon Stone, Larry David, James L. Brooks, Conan O'Brien, Sarah Silverman and Jonah Hill.
AFTER: Well, it was true of Gene Wilder and it's true of Albert Brooks, funny guys get the girl. Funny guys get a lot of girls, especially if they date their co-stars, I mean, as Gilda Radner said, if you're going to kiss somebody on screen, why not kiss someone you have feelings for? It's apparently very convenient, though I can't always tell when two co-stars are dating because they were in the same movie from when they were in the same movie because they were dating. Some things we normal humans are just not meant to know.
Albert Brooks, also like Gene Wilder, played a long string of lovable losers, guys who couldn't get a break in life OR get the girl, but I bet that just made them both more attractive to women in the long run. Sure, a big hunky guy will rock your world at night, but a funny nebbish will make you laugh all day long, and isn't that what women want in life? Well, some women, anyway. Both comedians really followed the Woody Allen method, be funny, make movies, date your co-stars - but they wisely stopped things there and didn't take it to the next level, which is dating your adopted daughter. Both eventually settled down and got married, too, Brooks became a two-time father later in life, in his 50s, and his advice for finding someone to settle down with was totally tongue-in-cheek - "Stop looking." I don't know if this is code for settling, or realizing that you might already know someone you can partner with, or if he's just being funny, but it sounds like both good and sarcastic advice that comes from the heart. Many celebs get married and they keep looking, of course, which is when they tend to get into trouble. Hey, celebrities, they're just like us! Only they get laid more.
I first learned about Albert Brooks the same way I learned about Mel Brooks (no relation) - and so many others, through the Dr. Demento radio show. Although he mostly played "novelty" records, he also played tracks from comedy albums, like cuts from George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield and Albert Brooks - although the recordings from Albert Brooks were unlike any others, he would imagine a scenario where regular people are auditioning to be the songwriter of a new national anthem for the U.S., and he would play all the parts, imitating regular dumb people from around the country and then singing the patriotic songs that such people might write to win a contest - that's a think piece, sure, but so were Tom Lehrer's songs about nuclear war or rhyming all the chemical elements to the tune of "A Modern Major General". (Sure, in science class I knew all the names of the elements, but I'd learned them in completely the wrong order, thanks...)
Then I started to see Albert Brooks in movies I enjoyed, like "Twilight Zone: The Movie" or "Broadcast News" and said, whoa, wait a minute, that's the guy who did those comedy albums that I memorized tracks from, the guy who had the routine about people writing new national anthems for the U.S. He's in movies now? Well, OK, I guess I'm good with that, as long as the movies are funny and of high quality. Well, I really shouldn't have worried, because he really starred in some great ones - "Defending Your Life", "The Scout, and "Mother", I'll put those three movies up against any other three comedies of your choice, and mine will probably come out on top. This eventually pushed me backwards to see his earlier movies, "Lost in America", "Modern Romance", and then once I got my blog, well, it was finally time to watch "Taxi Driver", "Private Benjamin" and "Terms of Endearment".
At some point in the late 1990s, Brooks moved over to the dark side, with films like "Out of Sight", then later "Drive" and "A Most Violent Year" - who knew he could play villains so well? Actually for him there was probably always a fine line between his depressed, anti-social good guy "looking for love" roles and his depressed, anti-social bad guy roles. Same deadpan humor, same attitude, only the good guys were characters who hadn't yet had life beat the hope and spirit out of him, and then we assume that maybe the villains are similar, only they've already been beaten up by life, and now they're pissed about it..
Still, there's tons of footage in this documentary that I haven't seen before, like all the appearances on "The Tonight Show", and he was apparently one of Johnny Carson's favorite guests because nobody knew what crazy thing Albert Brooks was going to come out and do, like playing a mime who won't shut up or an elephant tamer whose elephant is sick, so he has to do the same act, only with a frog in place of his elephant. I'd never seen any of these until today. And before that, Albert Brooks (then named Albert Einstein) was making Carl Reiner laugh when he was still in high school, because he'd had the good luck to meet Rob Reiner in drama club, and the two men have been friends ever since.
Also, I'm here to learn, and I found out through this movie that Albert Brooks was supposed to be the "permanent" host of SNL, Lorne Michaels wanted him to start every show, but then the "Not Ready for Prime Time" players would take over from there. Brooks, however, suggested the idea of a different host every week, which has been the format over there for almost 50 years now, and I'm not quite sure how Albert Brooks somehow interviewed himself out of that job, but that's how it happened. That just left him with the Carson show, and then he transitioned quite hilariously over to appearances on the Letterman show (doing the world's only phone-in "stupid pet trick" for starters) and Jesus, that's some Comedy Hall of Fame-type experience.
I can't say I've seen EVERY Albert Brooks film, but I've seen "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" and I've seen "Concussion", "This Is 40" and so, nearly all of them. To this day I will defend my opinion that Holly Hunter's character should have ended up with him in "Broadcast News" instead of going with William Hurt's character. Their characters knew each other a bit too well, which is something I didn't quite understand at the time, I just thought they should have been married. If you have a friend that you can say "I'll meet you at the place we went to that time" and they know what you're talking about, aren't you already married, at least on some level? But now I think maybe it was a bit more complicated than that, or I missed something, or I don't really understand how love triangles work.
Anyway, there's a huge parallel here between the documentary and the 1991 comedy "Defending Your Life", a movie in which a man dies and learns that his entire life was filmed by angels (or whoever's in charge) and scenes from his life will be reviewed in a court setting, to determine if he's ready to move on to heaven (or whatever). In much the same vein, the doc reviews clips from Albert Brooks' life to determine if he's ready for comedy heaven (or whatever) or at least if he should be judged as one of the greatest comedians. My vote is "YAY", of course.
Also starring Albert Brooks (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Judd Apatow (last seen in "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You"), James L. Brooks (last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Rob Reiner (ditto), Ben Stiller (ditto), Kimberly Brooks, Larry David (last seen in "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time"), Clifford Einstein, Nikki Glaser (last seen in "I Feel Pretty"), Tiffany Haddish (last seen in "Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only"), Wanda Sykes (ditto), Alana Haim (last seen in "Licorice Pizza''), Jonah Hill (last seen in "Saltburn"), Anthony Jeselnik (last seen in "Gilbert"), Conan O'Brien (last seen in "Remembering Gene Wilder"), Chris Rock (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Sarah Silverman (last seen in "Marry Me"), Steven Spielberg (last seen in "Belushi"), Jon Stewart (last seen in "Good Night Oppy"), Sharon Stone (last seen in "Sly"), Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Williams (last seen in "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On")
with archive footage of Steve Allen (last seen in "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool"), Desi Arnaz (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Milton Berle (ditto), Bob Einstein (ditto), Susie Essman (ditto), J.B. Smoove (ditto), Flip Wilson (ditto), Lucille Ball (also last seen in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Carl Reiner (ditto), Joey Bishop (last seen in "Sammy Davis: I've Gotta Be Me"), Jeff Bridges (last seen in "The Giver"), Mel Brooks (also last seen in "Remembering Gene Wilder"), Carrie Fisher (ditto), Richard Pryor (ditto), Nicolas Cage (last seen in "De Palma"), James Cameron, Glen Campbell (last seen in "Dionne Warwick Don't Make Me Over"), Ed Sullivan (ditto), George Carlin (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Butterfly in the Sky"), Johnny Cash (last seen in "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood"), Jessica Chastain (last seen in "The 355"), Cher (last seen in "Nothing Compares"), George Clooney (last seen in "The Flash"), Bryan Cranston (last seen in "Jerry and Marge Go Large"), Robert De Niro (last seen in "Sly"), Richard Dreyfuss (last seen in "Night Falls on Manhattan"), Harry Einstein, Don Everly (last seen in "David Crosby: Remember. My Name"), Phil Everly (ditto), Jeff Garlin (last seen in "Babylon"), Debbie Reynolds (ditto), Kathie Lee Gifford (last seen in "Bob Ross; Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed"), Ryan Gosling (last seen in "Barbie"), Charles Grodin (last seen in "An Imperfect Murder"), Julie Hagerty (last seen in "Somebody I Used to Know"), Jon Hamm (last seen in "Unfrosted"), Kathryn Harrold (last seen in "The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper"), Johnny Haymer, Holly Hunter (last seen in "Spielberg"), William Hurt (last seen in "Black Widow"), Oscar Isaac (last heard in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"), George Jessel, Laura Kightlinger, Bruno Kirby, Stanley Kubrick, Thelma Leeds, Jay Leno (last seen in "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2'), Art Linkletter, Lucy Liu (last heard in "Strange World"), Andie MacDowell (last seen in "Dinner With Friends"), Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall (last seen in "Belushi), Dean Martin (last seen in "Think Like a Man Too"), Tony Martin, Groucho Marx (last seen in "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time"), Frances Lee McCain, Ed McMahon (last seen in "SLY"), Regis Philbin (last seen in "Jack and Jill"), Lou Rawls, Estelle Reiner (last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Linda Ronstadt (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Paul Rudd (last seen in "I Could Never Be Your Woman"), Martin Scorsese (last seen in "De Palma"), Cybill Shepherd (last seen in "Being Rose"), Gene Siskel (last seen in "Belushi"), Will Smith (last seen in "Made in America"), Meryl Streep (last seen in "The Giver"), Fred Thompson, Rip Torn (last seen in "Eulogy")
RATING: 7 out of 10 spit-takes at the Famous Comedians School
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