Retro Review: Documentary Now

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Documentaries are generally a pretty esoteric cinematic experience and co-creator Fred Armisen’s comedy is also pretty esoteric. As a result putting those together is going to lead to something that’s not easy to appreciate or particularly funny every time out of the gate.

While the premise’s novelty — re-imagining popular documentaries with a comic bent — was enough to get it through the first season, the show usually sinks or swims based on how funny the episode is.
With the exception of Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Morgan Spurlock, or Werner Herzog, very few documentaries have ever surfaced to the national consciousness. As a result, many viewers (including myself) are not going to go to know of the original source either, so the comedy often has to stand on its own in a way that most direct parodies don’t.

Despite these challenges, co-producers Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers and BIll Hader do an admirable job of working comic magic out of wayward references.

“The Town, A Gangster, a Festival” approaches the brilliance of Christopher Guest’s films (what I’m sure is an influence on these guys) in terms of attention to…