The Comedian (Taylor Hackford, 2016): USA

Reviewed by Thomas Luke Madenwald at AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles, California.

The Comedian shows the life of an aging comedian, Jackie (Robert De Niro) who used to be a popular TV star but now after attacking an audience member at one of his acts He is sentenced to community service where he meets an unlikely friend, Harmony (Leslie Mann). They begin to form a friendship as they begin to do favors for each other that end up helping them through their obstacles in life.

Firstly, I must say that this film is pretty funny. I was lucky enough to see the premier of this film and get to hear the director and cast talk about the film after. The director informed the audience that the movie was shot in 27 days and that many of the films takes were first to second takes. This baffled me because there were so many emotionally real scenes and sequences in the film. I guess thats what happens when you hire true talent.

The jokes are well done and poke fun at important issues that we are going through today. Robert De Niro did such a fantastic job taking on the mantel of a comedian. That’s very hard work because acting for film and television and stand up comedy are two very different animals.

The editing however is what made this film receive poor reviews. Half of the transitions are jerking and visually annoying which give the film the same tempo and pace as the jazz score that runs throughout. It looked like the director was trying to get artsy shots but didn’t have time to pinpoint good ones. If the film didn’t have good actors and a good script, it would have never been seen by the public. I truly feel that the director and editor on this movie were the issues that so many have given the film a poor rating for.

But all in all, this is a good movie in my opinion if you can get past the editing and just enjoy the story. I know to others, that’s not what a “film” is but its all subjective. I personally feel that the only difference between a medium and a peace of art is story and heart. These two things come in huge supply are are a pleasant surprise from the hollywood “popcorn eaters” that are so popular now days.