As some other critics have noted, it's sort of like Grey Gardens lite, but I have to wonder if any/everyone who wrote about this following it's New York Film Festival premiere (or any other fest screenings) have to revisit their opinions following the final sucker-punch celebrity deaths of Fisher followed by Reynolds in 2016.
I'm of two minds on this: yes, there may not be too much different in seeing these natural-born-entertainer-Characters (though Reynolds more-so, they can't seem to help breaking out into song, and usually they both know the words), and no, there is a sadder pall on everything knowing they're gone and, as the Rolling Stones sang, 'This could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don't know,' and we do know for Reynolds it is and for Fisher (who mentions she's off to shoot Force Awakens and is shooting it during the filming of the doc) it is too.
In a way though it's about a mother and daughter, the through-line is really about Reynolds and her long, winding goodbye to entertainment; she does a concert to a large sports-style auditorium, and while she's not singing badly one can see the lights are trying to hide that the auditorium is not full and how she can barely get down the stairs from the stage. But she can't stop/won't stop, so who knows if her "final" show in Las Vegas, where she requests Carrie to come on stage to sing (with, as Carrie shows, awkwardly scripted banter for them to do).
The question through much of what is a scattered-in-structure document of two people at a particular time looking back at things is: how do you ever end being "you", whether that's Debbie Reynolds or Carrie Fisher? There are some scenes that are extraneous, if I can step back and look at it critically as a documentary. Even at 93 minutes it may be too long. But you can't escape how meaningful this is now seeing it with the context of knowing this is a tribute to these wonderful people as much as it's a document of their relationship. It's both, really, and you know for all the pain that they've caused each other, with Postcards from the Edge as a prime example of their contentious moments, there's real love and friendship. Not to mention there's brother/son Todd Fisher, the brother who may be *weirder* in some ways (with his movie posters chronicling how his parents started out and then came together and split apart, and his Knight Rider car which is simply WTF), on the sidelines, part of it but too "normal" as a nice little boy who grew up around all this.
So if you like or even have some passing admiration for Reynolds, who seems like a born entertainer but really did have to work at it (being naturally beautiful helped too, but being molded by the MGM studio system was the key - as someone here says, maybe Carrie, she couldn't help but be 'on' all the time), and Fisher, who struggled for years with bi-polar disorder and a host of other addictions and ailments to still be around for her, and the mother for her daughter. Along the way there are nice 'cameos' from Griffin Dunne (who introduces himself at the foot of Fisher's stairs yelling, "hey, f***face" with affection), and Barbara Streisand on the TV.
PS: No, really, a Knight Rider car? Really? PPS: The footage of Fisher at a convention doesn't quite sync up to what she wrote about in her book, The Princess Diarist, but why carp?
I'm of two minds on this: yes, there may not be too much different in seeing these natural-born-entertainer-Characters (though Reynolds more-so, they can't seem to help breaking out into song, and usually they both know the words), and no, there is a sadder pall on everything knowing they're gone and, as the Rolling Stones sang, 'This could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don't know,' and we do know for Reynolds it is and for Fisher (who mentions she's off to shoot Force Awakens and is shooting it during the filming of the doc) it is too.
In a way though it's about a mother and daughter, the through-line is really about Reynolds and her long, winding goodbye to entertainment; she does a concert to a large sports-style auditorium, and while she's not singing badly one can see the lights are trying to hide that the auditorium is not full and how she can barely get down the stairs from the stage. But she can't stop/won't stop, so who knows if her "final" show in Las Vegas, where she requests Carrie to come on stage to sing (with, as Carrie shows, awkwardly scripted banter for them to do).
The question through much of what is a scattered-in-structure document of two people at a particular time looking back at things is: how do you ever end being "you", whether that's Debbie Reynolds or Carrie Fisher? There are some scenes that are extraneous, if I can step back and look at it critically as a documentary. Even at 93 minutes it may be too long. But you can't escape how meaningful this is now seeing it with the context of knowing this is a tribute to these wonderful people as much as it's a document of their relationship. It's both, really, and you know for all the pain that they've caused each other, with Postcards from the Edge as a prime example of their contentious moments, there's real love and friendship. Not to mention there's brother/son Todd Fisher, the brother who may be *weirder* in some ways (with his movie posters chronicling how his parents started out and then came together and split apart, and his Knight Rider car which is simply WTF), on the sidelines, part of it but too "normal" as a nice little boy who grew up around all this.
So if you like or even have some passing admiration for Reynolds, who seems like a born entertainer but really did have to work at it (being naturally beautiful helped too, but being molded by the MGM studio system was the key - as someone here says, maybe Carrie, she couldn't help but be 'on' all the time), and Fisher, who struggled for years with bi-polar disorder and a host of other addictions and ailments to still be around for her, and the mother for her daughter. Along the way there are nice 'cameos' from Griffin Dunne (who introduces himself at the foot of Fisher's stairs yelling, "hey, f***face" with affection), and Barbara Streisand on the TV.
PS: No, really, a Knight Rider car? Really? PPS: The footage of Fisher at a convention doesn't quite sync up to what she wrote about in her book, The Princess Diarist, but why carp?