Thursday, April 27, 2017

Movie review - "Where Have You Gone, Lou DiMaggio?" (2017) ***

Sweet documentary about a former stand up comic, a name in the late 80s, who gave performing away and misses it a lot, and now wants to comeback. He's not a tragic washed up character - he seems to have had a decent career, just didn't become a star, but managed to make a living as a producer and writer... and misses the charge of performing.

DiMaggio had a vaguely familiar face and there's plenty of clips of him from his heyday. He chats to some of his contemporaries - Larry David, Howie Mandel, Kevin Meaney (who died not long after the interview was filmed), Richard Belzer, Colin Quinn, Ray Romano, and others.

There's something universal about going back to your first love, the hopelessness of trying to recapture the past, the importance of being true to yourself, the dangers of self sabotage. The camaraderie with old friends comes across very well. The "summing up" at the end probably wasn't necessary - it was dramatised with his success. An unexpected delight.

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