Gilbert

Gilbert (2017)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This is a rather unique and interesting documentary that takes a look at the life and career of comedian Gilbert Gottfried but instead of focusing on the early portion of his career this film takes a look at his more recent years including his relationship with his wife and two children.

Apparently there was a very long-running joke saying that the comedian would never get married and the first twenty or so minutes of the documentary covers his relationship with is wife. We really get to know Gilbert as he is today with the family life and then we slowly start to go back in time to hear stories about his parents, growing up, becoming a comedian and then hitting success.

I thought the film took a rather unique approach to the subject and I must admit that I have never been the biggest fan of Gilbert's. In fact, I honestly found him to be rather annoying but after watching this documentary I really came away seeing him quite differently and yes, this documentary actually made me like him. We get some terrific stories from his wife about what it's like to live with someone like him. We also get to hear from comedians like Jay Leno, Artie Lange, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Belzer, Jim Gaffigan and Lewis Black who explain why everyone loves Gilbert.

There are plenty of video clips from his earliest performances on the stage as well as his transformation into a dirty comic where we get even more clips. There's also discussion of his now notorious tweets after the Japan tsumani and we get to hear from everyone involved on the jokes and the comic's timing in regards to something beign too soon.

GILBERT is certainly a very fun and at times touching look at the comedia. I think his fans will really enjoy the access into his life and I also think the film is good enough to even work for people like me who wasn't the biggest fans going into it.

Gilbert Gotfried makes a joke about having oral sex with an actress and not minding that it would give him cancer (relating to Michael Douglas, hint) and then says he'd even get some kind of dystrophy, which he ended up dying of...

The thing about this documentary, more of a home movie, is that he's obviously... very, very obviously dying of something...

He's very skinny and he can't talk very well, and it's not just him being his real self unlike the stage persona... so that aspect is the elephant in this otherwise somewhat cozy room...

They say he was a comic's comic (and one of the first to be cancelled), but that doesn't really seem like the right word, seeming more befitting to George Carlin...

He was more of a niche, a deliberately annoying niche, always playing annoying characters...

And despite Corpse Artie Lange being interviewed, Gilbert's best times on The Howard Stern Show was during the 1990's when Howard, talking about when Gilbert was sick in the hospital for a month, got the human side out of him, in spurts...

Which sums up this documentary, spurts, about a guy who is surprised he's rich, famous and has a wife, but, why? He's famous, he's rich... oh and his daughter is so adorable...

It's good he was able to retire with a loving family but it wouldn't be shocking if he had a wife in the 1980's... because that character he played was a character, no different than Rodney Dangerfield getting no respect when he was the most respected comedian ever...

Anyhow, it's a nice little slice, could have been deeper, but makes more sense now that he's already gone (it was made, of course, and released when alive) because it's obvious, again, that he's very sick here.

A behind the scenes look at the life and comedy of Gilbert Gottfried. My impression: Gilbert is a comedic genius who is often misunderstood, misinterpreted. In real life he is a sweet, kind caring guy, a real family man with two kids and a good marriage. He gets himself into trouble (and sometimes fired) because he has no filter, he just goes right ahead and says what we all are thinking in the deep recesses of our minds, and he makes it sound hilarious....but often not "politically correct". So he gets into trouble and then he regrets it. But he's actually a brilliant comedian and, little know fact...one of the greatest impressionists in all of show business. I've actually never seen a better impressionist than Gilbert. Who else does an impression of character actor John McGiver?! It was surreal and hilarious when he went into his McGiver impression for a baby! Unfortunately he doesn't do impressions very much any more. Great documentary. I highly recommend it!

Gilbert appears to be just a profile of its main figure, the inimitable Gilbert Gottfried (if you hear his voice once you'll never forget it). It turns out Neil Berkeley, who followed Gottfried around for almost a year, was out to capture everything in his life and got both the mundane (but in amusing ways, like we literally see him clean his socks and underwear... in the sink in his hotel room) and the insightful. We see his family and their accomplishments (his late sister, Arlene, was a photographer), and specifically his wife and two kids, which he got late in life (he's in his 60's but doesn't look a day over 59). There's so much humanity bursting all around that it's sometimes easy to forget how much of a crumudgen Gilbert is... or that that is a cover for being a shy, basically good hearted person who has had a few blows in the public eye (sometimes of his own doing, but nothing ever maliciously meant).

This really was quite heartwarming, and what's lovely about it is that the director makes it about something deeper than just Gilbert (though he is as Stephen King once noted, a national treasure): we're seeing the vulnerability that comes with a person who uses comedy, and his show-business persona in general, as a defense mechanism because the world is such a cruel and terrible place. While he may claim to see his current family as something out of a "Twilight Zone" episode, or compare first seeing his first child like Karloff's Frankenstein coming up to the little girl by the pond in the film - his pop culture references know no limit, just listen to his podcast for that - Gottfried brings genuine joy for people, and that's all he can do.

No disrespect meant Gilbert Gottfried or any of the other people who appeared in this documentary, but it wasn't much of a documentary. It's a cute slice-of-life look at Gilbert Gottfried behind the scenes; but it explains almost nothing about where this unique and often bizarre persona we love comes from.

How and why did he create his signature stage voice? Why did he repeatedly get himself into trouble with his many famous "Too Soon" incidents? How did he develop that extreme brand of frugality? None of these questions are answered. There are vague hints of a personality disorder and daddy issues, but for a creative person what else is new. I don't think they even mentioned his signature squinting on stage, though I could be wrong.

I'm glad I didn't pay for this documentary, because it was really disappointing in terms of information. I'd still watch it again if it was on TV or something. But if anyone can recommend any interviews that actually explain how Gilbert Gottfried developed his unique style and quirks, I'd much rather see that.