Director Ondi Timenor (Music documentary ‘DIG!’) brings us a biography / documentary which follows comedian, actor, author and political activist Russell Brand.
The film shows Brand from his childhood, who even then at nine years old told his Mum that he was going to be as big as Jesus Christ. So it’s no wonder that at the age of 40 he is still trying to reach this goal and that everything else along the way has been a rehearsal for the second coming.
This really is a ‘warts and all’ documentary taking us through his drug addition(s) which we witness first hand through video taking at the time. Then the ups, when he finds success on TV with his brilliant observational and hilarious Ponderland series. And the downs in America during the MTV Awards in 2008 when he encouraged the US public to vote for Obama and called George Bush Junior a ‘Retarded Cowboy’ (which I think was an Up! As far as the UK was concerned) and you could have heard a pin drop in the audience.
However, around the same time he was also riding high with the hit comedy movie ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)’ and ‘Get Him to the Greek (2010)’.
We also hear from both his Parents. He is obviously close to his Mother who Russell says ‘Was the compassion’ in his life, whereas his Father was very rarely there for him and shows himself up in the documentary as not at all interested in what Russell has to say.
Along the way we also hear from friends and acquaintances such as Simon Anstell, David Lynch, Stephen Merchant, Mike Tyson, Oliver Stone, Jonathan Ross and Noel Gallagher who actually comes out of this looking like someone who talks a lot of sense (yes I know? I was surprised as well!).
If you are a fan of Mr Brand, I’m sure you will love seeing him being his usual funny self and using his highly intellectual and articulate counter arguments to baffle the likes of Jeremy Paxman and a trio of American News Anchors who he wipes the floor with.
We also have clips from the 2013 Messiah Complex stand up, where he cavorts around the stage in front of huge posters of Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Gandhi and that other famous icon what’s his name, Oh Yes…Jesus Christ!
The last part of the film is pretty much Brand’s own Revolutionary Party Political Broadcast and his bid to run the country, spanning from Grays in Essex to New York.
The thing is, that you can’t help liking Russell Brand and it scares me that I might even be persuaded to vote for him. I mean he couldn’t do any worse than those that have gone before him could he?
I have to admit though Russell Brand is very entertaining as always.
DVD and Blu-ray release Monday November 9, 2015
Certificate (15)
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