Stoneface

Want to get a positive movie review from me?   Here's the fool proof method.

Include Buster Keaton.

Done.

This is a rousing critique of the new Peter Bogdanovich documentary.  Of course, I liked it.   You can stop reading now if you want.

For those of you who continued on, "The Great Buster: A Celebration" is indeed that.   A celebration.    Buster Keaton is probably in the top five of the most genius film makers to ever live.   I've been a fan for years and, while most of the clips included here are actually in my DVD collection, it was wonderful to hear people laughing as they unfurled on the big screen.   Just the way Buster wanted it.

I was already an adult when I first watched the works of some of the silent screen comedic masters.  Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd are marvelous.  But there was always something about Buster that was intriguing.   Perhaps the ingenious stunts all performed by himself, even incurring at one point a broken neck.   Maybe it was the sweet and emotional plots of his stories.   Or could it be he never ever smiled?

Whatever the case, if it's Buster, I'm in.   And this very winning and immensely clinical documentary tells the whole story.  From working with his vaudeville parents as a small child who was literally thrown around the stage.   To his first works with Fatty Arbuckle.   Later on the uncomfortable move to talkies and subsequent alcoholism.  And then to the later years where he never really stopped working.   Apparently, Buster was a mainstay in lots of TV commercials in the 60s.

After Bogandovich masterfully outlines Keaton's life, he then very smartly hones in on Buster's feature film work in the late 20s.   Some of the most inventive movies ever made.   Note: if you never have seen "The General," please seek it out immediately.   You will be mesmerized by some of the stunts in that film, all performed by Keaton himself.

Bogandovich seasons his movies with a pot pourri of talking heads.   From folks who actually knew the guy like Dick Van Dyke, Norman Lloyd, and Paul Dooley to just plain fans like Johnny Knoxville and Bill Hader.   You even get some commentary from Cybill Shepherd and I suppose she is here mainly because she once slept with Bogdanovich.   Whatever.   Because the subject matter is so wonderful, nobody really detracts from the film.

You should go check this one out.   And then check out all the movies referenced in the documentary.   It's time for Buster to be back in the limelight. He has sadly been forgotten in, what Bogdanovich aptly calls, the United States of Amnesia.

LEN'S RATING:  Four stars.

Dinner last night:  Chopped salad.