Call Me Lucky (2015) User Reviews

Not For the Faint of Heart

[larrys3 · 8/10 · 23 October 2015]

This raw and explicit documentary, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, is not for the faint of heart and certainly not for everyone. It traces the life and career of the acerbic, rageful, and cynical comic Barry Crimmins, who has now become a leading children's rights and safety advocate.

Early on in the movie, Crimmins sets the tone by stating his two main goals, that of overthrowing the U.S. government and closing the Catholic Church, and as the film progress we find out why he feels this way. The doc traces Crimmins' early years in Skaneateles, New York where he began his comic career, to his move to Boston where he established a comedy club in the Chinese restaurant The Ding Ho, that eventually became a breeding ground for many known comics of today.

About halfway through the movie, it takes a radical shift relating a 1992 monologue where Crimmins graphically revealed for the first time in public his horrific sexual abuse when he was a child. This led to a tireless effort, often at the expense of his own health, to be an advocate for children's safety.

These were the very early days of the Internet, and Crimmins discovered in some AOL chatrooms vile and disgusting transmissions of child pornography, and devoted much of his energy to try and get AOL to close them down, to no avail. At the time apparently, this was still regarded by some as a free speech issue and not criminal activity like it is today.

This was demonstrated in the film, by a Senate Judiciary hearing where Crimmins was invited to testify. He was able to confront the smarmy Asst. General Counsel of AOL, and state his case to a panel of Senators who embarrassingly professed their ignorance of what the Internet even was. Of course today, child pornography has become a severely prosecuted crime in the United States.

In summary, although certainly not for everyone this explicit documentary was one I took a lot from, led by Crimmins' deep seeded attempts to battle some powerful evils in society, and maintaining his integrity while doing just that.

The Gospel According to Crimmins

[aciessi · 9/10 · 18 October 2015]

Call Me Lucky is a shocking, brilliant new documentary. It's about a man, few have known, but many really should discover. He's an American treasure, despite hating his own country so very much. Barry Crimmins is the subject of the piece. He's said to be "a cross between Noam Chomsky and Bluto". He is a giant fireball of communist rage. No matter how much you think you hate the United States, and the Catholic Church, trust me, you don't hate it as much as Barry does. He's seething anger personified, but it didn't just come out of a vacuum. As a young child, he was subject to a series of unspeakable, disgusting sexual assaults. How much of it that he discloses will make your jaw drop. It is devastating. Once you take it all into account, you suddenly understand his resentment for his surroundings. As a man, and in-between his stand- up gigs, he dedicates his free time in a heroic journey to save children who have been at the hands of sexual abuse. Through this journey, he exposes the darkest underbelly of the pedophilia ring, during the dawn of AOL. I'm spilling way too much about this documentary, but it's brilliant, and I have to just spill all of my thoughts here. It's Bobcat Goldthwait's masterpiece, and what should be, and won't be, an Oscar contender. It's too cool for the establishment to like. If the day comes and the Oscars don't nominate "Call Me Lucky", I hope to see Crimmins rail against the "capitalist, old, white, wrinkly, pig f******" that screwed him over again… sorry to paraphrase.

"He's like a guy in a John Ford movie."

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 2 May 2016]

A profile of what could be called the Most Scathing-Best Comic You've Never Heard Of (or maybe heard the name but never really saw), this is actually a powerful story of transformation and the triumph of the human spirit. That sounds like a bunch of s***, as Barry Crimmins might even put it, but it's true, and what's powerful also is how Goldthwait frames the story: the first half is showing us about this guy with shaggy hair and a crazy mustache that hangs down to his chin who would get up on stage with cigarettes and a beer (seemingly the forerunner, if this could be possible, of Bill Hicks, to me anyway) and rail against politicians - Reagan especially - and the government and institutions in general. He wasn't a "relationship" type of comic or a guy who talked about life's "little" moments like a Seinfeld. He went on stage to exorcise his thoughts and feelings, which were usually filled with bile.

The moments that are shown of him on stage are quite funny, if you can key yourself into his humor (I could, very quickly), and these clips are surrounded by interviews with people who knew him and worked with him at a club he started in Boston out of a Chinese food restaurant. But it's one thing if the movie was just that - Goldthwait, who knew Crimmins well in years past (he helped Goldthwait, with one seemingly small gesture after a night of hard partying, get him to sober up which is a touching detail that makes this an extremely personal movie) - but it's more, a lot more. It's about how a body can be violated and broken, and how it's next to impossible to get that back, and yet there's always other people who can be helped and saved.

Without spoiling too much about the details the second half gets into Crimmins' revelation, which he first did on stage in 1990 during an intense set, and then to the camera in this doc, about his sexual abuse as a kid. "I'm not a f***ing victim, but I am a witness," he says much later when the director takes him back to the house and basement where it took place. This moment by the way could be in other hands rather forced, like this is something that feels like it should be in here so we as the audience with the subject can get to some kind of catharsis by revealing and confronting further the horror and nightmare of the past... but how Crimmins sees it and puts it, it strips away that and he just knows what happened happened, and "it's just a basement," as he puts it. Perfectly put.

The documentary is as much about Crimmins' efforts in the 90's to show how AOL in its early days basically allowed child sex rings to go unabated online. One of the highlights of the film, and of any film in 2015, is seeing him at the hearing he attended in front of some politicians with an AOL stooge next to him. How this unfolds you have to see for yourself, but suffice it to say you can see how all of the anger and vitriol and pain that Crimmins dealt with over time kind of culminates in this moment. This isn't to say he stopped being an activist or fought for human rights elsewhere (naturally anti-war he's on camera fighting the good fight in 2004/2005 against Bush), and all of this is shown to come from an honest place, and the film reflects that.

Does it go on a little too long? Maybe, like near just the last five-ten minutes it starts to feel like it's run its course and told its story (not that the end credits don't bring some pep back in). What I got to see in Call Me Lucky is a life in full in both the world of comedy (which he had a love-hate relationship with, sometimes hate more than love depending on the night or who was performing, a true outsider) and in taking pain to try and do some sort of good. It's difficult to present someone's life when they're a victim of abuse, but the only thing to do is to not step around the subjects while also not making it *only* about that.

If Crimmins was only about illegal sex in chatrooms or only about p***ing off the government or something that'd be one thing, but it's more about seeing what goes on inside the mind of a crusader against all injustices, but especially those that hurt the innocents - the Catholic Church being the biggest target of all. You want to follow up on Spotlight as far as that goes this is a good movie to go to. But as far as taking a subject, showing him warts and all (not always a likable guy, some of the interviewees admit), this is about as strong as it gets in 2015 docs in seeing a man of principles and (dark) humor in full.

Or as Marc Maron puts it, "when I first saw him I thought, 'who does he think he us, he should be taken down a notch', and now I think 'he should be taken up a notch.'"

Intense personal story of survival and growth.

[sdwalker-76758 · 10/10 · 22 August 2015]

I felt as if I held my breath the entire length of the movie. Great historical footage, interviews and first person stories of the day. The life of a man who had to overcome trauma and pain. A man whose talents seemed wrong place, wrong time but who never compromised his principles. Touching, poignant and all of it true. The story follows Barry's career through the comedy scene of the 80's, up and down the east coast. His comedy reaches a deep lace inside, things that everyone can relate to from that era. His childhood was stolen from him. He struggled for decades. Came to terms and was able to move on. I loved this movie. It is astounding that his core group of friends were able to share stories from 40 years ago. Barry was there for up and coming young comics and many got their start in the business from him. Many familiar names in this story. I will see it again with friends.

Hilarious and haunting look at a comic legend and how he got that way

[wobbly33 · 10/10 · 23 August 2015]

Barry Crimmins is not a well-known comedian outside of Boston and New York. But he is a legend among comics, including many legendary comics. His highly intelligent and hard-charging style, lashing out at greedy and inhumane politics, puts him in the ranks of Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and Bill Hicks. He also helped mentor a roster of comics like Denis Leary, Stephen Wright, Tom Kenny, Paula Poundstone, and Lenny Clarke. He also mentored Bobcat Goldthwait, who directs this simple yet emotionally packed biography that explains not only who Crimmins is, but how he came to be. This is not a "how did he get to be so funny?" or "the greatest (blank) you've never heard of" fluff piece. This is a very gritty, sometimes very dark look at the horrors Crimmins endured as a child, and how he turned his suffering into a lifelong mission to help those victimized by man's inhumanity to man. His compassion permeates his actions, even as he takes the microphone at a Senate hearing on child pornography and uses it to (figuratively) beat a suit from AOL into submission. The result is an emotional wringer that will take you from belly laughs to gut-punched. See this film.

When children are sexually abused...

[bettycjung · 15 March 2018]

3/15/18. Wow, what a biopic! Never heard of him but now that I have watched this I will never forget him. A caustic, sarcastic comedian who had a good reason for being that way - he was sexually abused when he was a small child. Eventually he took all that energy and channeled it into activism against Internet child porn. More than anything he raised awareness of how prevalent child molestation is, and it's scary. Parents, protect your children!

Using abuse as a 'plot twist' of sorts is somewhat troubling, but otherwise this is very compelling stuff.

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 9 September 2020]

At the risk of sounding cynical, the fact that this was made before Barry Crimmins' death makes the testimonies more credible, in a way. People are celebrating and stating the importance of this man, and it's not because he's passed away and because you "have" to be respectful to the dead. Of course not all interviewees in documentaries about the dead are lying or embellishing, but it's something that's often on my mind when I watch them.

Anyway, this is a very good documentary with one possible downside: I felt a little strange about Crimmins' abuse as a child being a plot twist of sorts, at least at first. It seemed a little tacky to build suspense to this "revelation" through showing snippets of interviews with his sister. In the end it works, and it does lend the second half of the film a sense of power and emotion, but maybe other survivors of abuse would want to know the documentary is going to cover that stuff beforehand. I think it's a good approach for viewers who aren't victims of childhood abuse, to jolt their systems and make it more impactful, but there is a chance this sudden shift at the halfway point could prove difficult and too confrontational for people who have survived abuse and don't know it's coming within the documentary.

In this case, the somewhat comparable halfway plot shift in Goldthwait's excellent World's Greatest Dad probably works a bit better, thanks to the story being fictional.

Bobcat Goldthwait's documentary on a Boston comedy icon with an important message

[Pentucket · 10/10 · 23 August 2015]

The night after the live show that was filmed for this documentary, we all woke up to the news that Robin Williams, the best friend of director Bobcat Goldthwait, had died from suicide. I heard in interviews that Robin had considered playing the lead role if this story had been done dramatically. That came to mind a few times while watching and I could see why the character would have appealed to him.

It's about Barry Crimmins, one of the main personalities behind the launch of many Boston comics' careers, but comedy seems incidental to the work he does as years pass and perspective deepens. I don't know when I first became aware of him. I know I heard Steven Wright mumble his name somewhere way back, but I looked more closely after hearing Barry interviewed by Marc Maron on his WTF podcast. Barry Crimmins personally confronts some of the purest evil mankind perpetrates on itself and tried to prevent much of the damage that continues to be done in the name of profit. While doing that, he helped nurture a conscientious brand of comedy that continues to bring out unique voices.

Barry Crimmins demons exorcised masterfully by Bobcat Goldthwait in this powerful documentary!

[lushuslollygaggins · 10/10 · 23 August 2015]

As a angrily aware sarcastic survivor of violence myself, the daughter of an alcoholic incest victim, the sister of an addicted abused child, a lifelong fan of achingly honest comedy, and as the parent of a boy named Lenny Bruce; my most sincere THANK YOU to everyone involved in the creation of this fantastic film! I laughed, snorted, cried, & cursed. A special debt of gratitude to Barry himself for being our laughing lighthouse; may we all steer towards his in the know glow. I firmly believe that the vast majority of us fiercely funny f**ks are genetically descended from the watchers, born here to witness and testify to the atrocities of soulless slaves. There isn't one person alive who shouldn't see this flick...TWICE!

Funny, dramatic and gripping all at once

[minister_of_silly_walks · 10/10 · 18 March 2019]

The story follows the life and career of comedian Barry Crimmins through the comedy scene of the 1980's. It showcases his signature style and approach to comedy, while also diving into his personal life and demons he had to overcome since his early childhood. It is an incredible story of growth, survival and the strength of the human spirit.