For anybody who grew up between 1960 to the early 1980's, the name Charles Nelson Reilly should click with you (especially if you watched a ton of kid vid & game shows). The documentary,filmed mostly at his one man play/monologue/diatribe, on the last two performances should be worth you while. Reilly recalls his tortured childhood,up thru his late adolescence with a mix of snide humour & pained memories (how he even got through childhood & adolescence with a vile,racist,homophobic control fanatic Mother,a alcoholic,manic depressive Father,a comatose Aunt & other dysfunctional family members is a small miracle in itself). He also recalls his early years on Broadway (only after he was rejected by the President of NBC for being gay),and his eventual rise as a television celebrity, makes this for a film to be taken upon. About my only beef is the occasional clumsy camera & editing work that makes this film a wee bit of a challenge (the camera seems to be everywhere it's not supposed to be more than a few times,plus the framing seems to be way off,giving the film a rather clumsy,home movie look, such as 'Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars',which was marred by bad camera & editing work). If you can get past that, 'The Life Of Reilly' is one to seek out.
Review of The Life of Reilly
