Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in 2 Pieces (2024)

"Do you ever get sad because you're not as happy as you think you should be?"

Steve Martin has always been an enigmatic figure to me, even though I've been watching his movies ever since he turned grey. Fascinating to see how his rocky childhood, Disney upbringing (working at a magic shop) and 15 years of stand-up helped hone him into the wild and crazy guy he would become. And yeah, even the banjos stretch back that far. This doc contains a lot of rare footage and newly filmed interviews, and even a couple of candid moments of raw emotion. The first half covers his upbringing up until his "retirement" from stand-up in 1980, while the rest encapsulates the breadth of his film career all the way to his successful stage show with Martin Short. It's a good overview a life well-lived; recommended for fans and comedy nerds alike.

3½ arrows through the head out of 5

Lorne (2026)

Lorne Michaels, the maverick behind Saturday Night Live for the past five decades, is given his own spotlight here, where he is as cagey, elusive and stoic as ever, including to his own friends and co-workers. This doc attempts to penetrate the mystique that surrounds this aura with a cheeky narrative approach that guesses at half-truths, along with some candid footage of the man behind the curtain at Studio 8H, where he ushered in an era of counter-cultural voices and leaves behind an enormous legacy of comedic talent. Yet, at the end of the day, we still don't know much more than when we started. 

2½ Dr. Evil impressions out of 5

Piece by Piece (2024)

Hip-hop mogul and producer Pharrell Williams inexplicably tells his life story through a documentary presented entirely in animated Lego form. Why? is the question I kept asking myself throughout. Pharrell experiences the world through synesthesia, which is a way of processing everything through color in the mind's eye. It's your typical, cookie-cutter rags to riches story, with the usual rise and fall (ever so brief) before inevitably coming back stronger than ever. Nevertheless, it contains a wide range of songs from his musical career and it succeeds by marrying the colorful images and catchy songs together. However, at the heart of it all, it still feels like a cynical ego-driven vanity project. I probably would have enjoyed this more as a series of music videos.

2½ Lego McNuggets out of 5