Documentary filmmaker Morgan Neville (Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal) turns his perceptive focus onto the life of Steve Martin in his new 3 hour+, two-part film STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces.
I'm of the age where I remember Steve Martin EXPLODING on the scene in 1977. Like every other teen in America, I had the comedy LP "Let's Get Small" and spent my days repeating lines like "Excuuuuuuuse Me!" and "We are wild and crazy guys!" ad nauseum.
Martin filled stadiums, not comedy clubs. His hosting gigs on a new show called "Saturday Night Live" became part of the national zeitgeist with an impassioned urgency.
I really enjoyed the chance to revisit those days. Neville spends the first half of the documentary on Martin's childhood through his blast off in the late 70's.
Martin is a constant presence, listening to his old bits and sharing stories of his very first shows.
There are plenty of his clips of the Smothers Brothers Hour and every other 1970's variety show he appeared on. As a very talented musician, he was a constant presence, even working in some occasional magic from his early teen days working at Disneyland.
Magic was his first passion, music his second and comedy came third.
Martin is very transparent about those early days, his family life with a difficult father and trying to blaze his own path. His sense of longing for parental approval is primal and deeply felt.
Watching his early naivety give way to a burning desire for counter culture humor is a fascinating journey.
Packed with on camera interviews with Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Eric Idle, Diane Keaton and countless others, Neville also weaves in voice recordings from pre-video days to highlight Martin's journey.
Martin's film debut in "The Jerk" is detailed with some great behind the scenes footage, as is Martin's underrated follow up, "Pennies from Heaven". A full-on, dramatic song and dance film, it bombed on a grand scale. It's greatly underappreciated, not perfect but with plenty of brilliant moments within.
Martin shares that failure, along with tales of many of his other films. If you're a film buff, there's a lot to enjoy here. I did miss any tales about the making of some of my favorite Martin films like "The Man with Two Brains" but I realize the doc cant be 8 hours long.
The second half of the film details Martin's later days, through his current comedy tours with best friend Martin Short.
The most fascinating angle of the two chapters is just how different Martin is now, in his later years, than he was for the first half of his life.
It's inspiring to hear him talk now of how he's changed. There are life lessons to be learned. I could sit and watch he and Short together for days. The two share than easy, unspoken camaraderie that's rare and valued.
They are hilarious ripping on each other non-stop.
Neville finds an interesting balance between the inevitable predictability of all the celebrities sharing how Steve's a genius, with powerful moments from Martin's life that cut deep.
His father's reaction after the massively successful premiere of "The Jerk", Martin's inability to express any physical affection when it's offered and his obvious pain in sharing those memories with us hold this documentary a cut above.
In 1977, Martin's comedy was so different than anything else we had experienced. He found some sublime middle ground that shared intelligent & clever in the same breathing space as stupid. I remember my parents just thought it was damn dumb.
And that only made it funnier.
Even in Martin's early days, he always had an aristocratic aura and appreciation for fine art, very counterintuitive when you're making millions with an arrow through your head.
He always held his private life in a safe. Even his co-stars of those days say they never really knew him.
Seeing the happy, sharing person he is now makes for some very enjoyable watching, especially when served up with all these legendary memories and film clips from the past 5 decades.
STEVE! delivers a solid A-.
Now.....Let's Get... small......
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