Celebratory Documentary Can’t Escape Sad End

At the start of the documentary “Belushi,” writer Tanner Colby is heard in a phone dialog explaining to an interview topic that he’s speaking to individuals about John Belushi as a result of “No one’s ever done a real biography of John as a performer … I just want to give a full portrait of him as a human being.”

Those interviews from Colby, which had been used for a 2005 ebook concerning the comic and actor, at the moment are on the coronary heart of R.J. Cutler’s nonfiction movie “Belushi,” which premiered on the Chicago International Film Festival on Wednesday and also will play on the AFI Fest earlier than heading to Showtime on Nov. 22. And when you might say that the film will get within the neighborhood of being a full portrait of the human being, it could be a stretch to name it a biography of John Belushi the performer – as a result of at a sure level, the narrative is just overwhelmed by Belushi’s drug dependancy, and by the lengthy decline that led inexorably to his demise from an overdose of cocaine and heroin in a Los Angeles resort room in 1982.

As a lot as “Belushi” want to have a good time Belushi, it will possibly’t escape the shadow of his unhappy finish, not that it even tries to try this.

Belushi’s mercurial rise and unhappy decline have been instructed earlier than, notably with Bob Woodward’s much-maligned 1984 ebook “Wired” and the horrible 1989 film adaptation that just about killed actor Michael Chiklis’ profession earlier than it started. “Belushi” is much extra even-handed than that, approaching its topic with affection for him personally and ample appreciation for his fierce comedic expertise, even when it will possibly’t provide a lot in the best way of revelation in any case this time.

What “Belushi” does provide is a good variety of scrumptious clips, amongst them Belushi’s auditions for Second City and “Saturday Night Live,” and many audio interviews along with his mates, colleagues and relations (together with Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Lorne Michaels, Harold Ramis, Belushi’s spouse, Judy Jacklin, and plenty of extra) carried out by Colby through the analysis for his ebook.

Those interviews are greater than 15 years outdated; that doesn’t essentially damage the movie, as a result of they’re telling a narrative that goes again additional than that and since the timing permits “Belushi” to incorporate feedback from now-deceased mates like Carrie Fisher and Penny Marshall. But the interviews are additionally preserved on low-fi recordings of phone conversations, which isn’t an issue for an oral historical past like Colby’s ebook however is usually a distraction in a movie – because the spine of the film, these recordings place the voices at a distance from us, and make the tales they inform really feel older and extra second-hand.

Cutler, whose earlier movies embody “The War Room,” “The September Issue” and “Listen to Me Marlon,” works exhausting to present us visuals round these recordings, from the clips of Belushi at work to stylized animated sequences by Robert Valley to occasional house films. (There aren’t any speaking heads, apart from Belushi himself on TV exhibits.) The least-familiar a part of the movie is the part dedicated to his childhood when Belushi grew up feeling like an outsider and ashamed of his Albanian mother and father.

Clips from his efficiency within the National Lampoon’s off-Broadway manufacturing “Lemmings” and in a while “Saturday Night Live” give some thought of Belushi’s anarchic vitality, and a bit on the early years of “SNL” explores areas each well-known (Belushi chafing at how Chevy Chase instantly turned the breakout star) and largely forgotten (the very small function Belushi was given in early exhibits). For some time – by way of “SNL” and into “Animal House” and the Blues Brothers’ musical success – “Belushi” can journey that vitality; even when those that know the story gained’t be too stunned by what they see, it will possibly nonetheless be thrilling to observe Belushi in motion.

(Can we simply admit,…