Bittersweet look at the man who was America's top comedian for 15 years, and who got left behind as his style of prop comedy got left behind.
I am a Gallagher fan. I saw him several times live in the splatter zone where the exploding watermelons from his sledg-o-matic strikes splashed the audience with raw fruit. I constantly quote his one liners. Like many people I wondered what happened to him after I heard of his recent passing. This film tells us about his long twisting road.
While there is no doubt that GALLAGHER the film is funny, there is also a dark edge to it. Gallagher and his siblings were molested when they were young, there was infighting and as several of his friends and co-workers point out he could be a handful. Indeed director Josh Forbes experiences it as Gallagher goes through periods where he wants nothing to do with the project. If we had wanted to get to know the man going in, Forbes shows him to us warts and all.
I was moved to the point of tears. Sometimes life isn't a bowl of cherries, more so in the age of social media.
For me a long time fan of the man and his comedy, this film was a revelation. For me it's infinitely better than most other recent films (say ones on George Carlin, Richard Pryor , Bill Cosby or some others) in that we get the life of the subject without and sugar coating or it being all good or bad. We don't feel like there was something being left out or that it was all skittles and beer. There is good with the bad, and when the telling is done you aren't jumping up and down cheering, or wanting to smack the person for misdeeds, you want to give them a hug because you truly understand their journey and the course of their life. We may not always like it, but we definitely know how they got here.
This is a staggering achievement. It is one of the best films at DOC NYC this year and one of the great cinematic surprises of 2024.
Recommended.
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