I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not Reviewing – Abundant Talent Showcased in Profile of Disgraced SNL Sitcom Champion | film

FMovies and documentaries can sometimes struggle to hold viewers’ attention if the central character isn’t sympathetic, but perhaps we’re more forgiving of non-fiction heroes because we accept warts and all in real life. But this film about actor and comedian Chevy Chase faces an uphill battle since not only does it tell the story of what a “fool” — as he’s often called — was like in the past, we also witness some of the goofiness firsthand. In the opening minutes, we see him telling the film’s director, Marina Zenovich, that he’s smarter than her, while also interrupting her, rolling his eyes at her questions, and generally acting goofy.

This is partly the notorious “thriller” that Chase always used to deal with in the piece in his comically smug style which is summed up by the film’s title. (That was his slogan when he anchored the Weekend Update segment on the US sketch show Saturday Night Live.) This self-aggrandizement went hand in hand with the denigration of everyone around him, eventually turning Chase into the most obnoxious kind of contrived insult comedy by the 1990s.

This was long after his peak as a star in the original cast of SNL and then a Hollywood star in his own right in films like Caddyshack, Fletch, and the National Lampoon’s Vacation franchise. Times changed around him and not in his favor. Here we see footage of him calling Richard Pryor the N-word in a 1970s-era SNL sketch. Later, when he reportedly began using racist language on the set of the TV show “Community,” cast members of color were not as forgiving.

However, this movie also expresses Chase’s good side in a really compelling way. It is instructive to learn about his miserable childhood, filled with abuse from his mother, and while he was clearly always a difficult character, the affection and love for him from his children and current wife, Jayne, reinforces the assertion that he cannot be all bad. Best of all, Zenovich and her editor, who have spliced ​​and dissected 50 years of archival material, recognize Chase’s abundant talent at its best, particularly his impeccable command of the trick, and his immaculate comic timing.