Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon | |
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Directed by | Douglas Tirola |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Cinematography | Sean Price Williams |
Edited by |
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Music by | Bryce Jacobs |
Production company | 4th Row Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Douglas Tirola. The film is about National Lampoon magazine, and how the magazine and its empire of spin-offs changed the course of comedy and humor. [1] [2]
The title of the film is very similar to the title of a 2010 book about National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who Made National Lampoon Insanely Great , by Rick Meyerowitz. The film refers to some of the same material, and features work from some of the same contributors, but the film is not actually based on the book. [3]
The film features new interviews with National Lampoon staff members and other notable figures who were fans of the magazine, as well as much never-before-seen archival material and illustrations from the magazine, many of which have been animated.
The film is "bursting with glimpses of the magazine's contents". [4] The film also features numerous new interviews, including those with Chevy Chase, John Landis, Judd Apatow, Kevin Bacon, Tim Matheson, John Goodman, Billy Bob Thornton, Meat Loaf, Christopher Buckley, Henry Beard, Matty Simmons, Tony Hendra, P. J. O'Rourke, Chris Miller, Anne Beatts, Mike Reiss, Sean Kelly, Brian McConnachie, Michael Gross, Janis Hirsch, Chris Cerf, Peter Kleinman, Judith Belushi Pisano, Rick Meyerowitz, Ivan Reitman, Bruce McCall, Al Jean, Beverly D'Angelo, Ed Subitzky, Sam Gross, Jerry Taylor, and many others, as well as archival footage of staffers and Lampoon performers, including John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Doug Kenney and Michael O'Donoghue. [3]
Both of the two posters for the film were drawn by Rick Meyerowitz. One is deliberately reminiscent of the original poster that Meyerowitz drew for the 1978 comedy Animal House , more correctly known as National Lampoon's Animal House, starring John Belushi. [5] In the new film poster, instead of the fictional Delta Tau Chi House, the building portrayed is the National Lampoon magazine's headquarters, which were at 635 Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
Another poster shows Rick Meyerowitz's piece Mona Gorilla, a parody of the Mona Lisa .
Alternate advertising artwork features a reproduction of the famous but controversial cover of the January 1973 "Death" issue of the National Lampoon. Retaining the photo of the man holding a gun to a dog's head, the words "Buy This Magazine" in the original caption "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog" has been changed to "See This Documentary". The cover is also referenced in the above-mentioned poster by an illustration of the dog. However, in this case, the dog is holding a gun to its own head while holding a sign saying "At the end of my trope", a pun on the saying "At the end of my rope".
The film was shown at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival [6] and at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on 16 April. [7] The premiere was at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village, New York City, on the evening of September 25, 2015.
The film was released on Blu-ray/DVD by Magnolia Home Entertainment in April 2016. [2]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 88% of 65 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead might not be the definitive doc National Lampoon fans are waiting for, but it's still almost as funny as the magazine in its heyday." [8] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [9]
Ben Kenigsberg of Variety reviewed the film positively, calling it "generous and briskly entertaining" and "a real non-fiction crowdpleaser". He also commented that director Douglas Tirola "pulls it off with style [...] skillfully presenting a huge amount of material, including animations rendered after the style of Lampoon artwork." [3]
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a lively, very entertaining look at the Lampoon's unlikely empire". [10]
Paula Bernstein of Indiewire interviewed the director, Douglas Tirola, who commented, "What I liked about the Lampoon was there was no 'going too far'." [11]
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician. He was one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). Throughout his career, Belushi had a personal and artistic partnership with his fellow SNL star Dan Aykroyd, whom he met while they were both working at Chicago's Second City comedy club.
National Lampoon was an American humor magazine that ran from 1970 to 1998. The magazine started out as a spinoff from The Harvard Lampoon.
Rick Meyerowitz is an American artist, and author. He is best known for his work for National Lampoon magazine and its spin-offs, including his poster for the comedy film Animal House.
Ed Subitzky, full name Edward Jack Subitzky, is an American writer and artist. He is best known as a cartoonist, comics artist, and humorist. He has worked as a television comedy writer and performer, a writer and performer of radio comedy, and a writer of radio drama. He has also created comedy and humor in other media. Subitzky is a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Writers Guild of America.
Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).
National Lampoon: Lemmings, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1973 stage show that helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Chevy Chase. The show was co-written and co-directed by a number of people, including Sean Kelly.
"Holiday Road" is a 1983 single composed and recorded by American guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham. Written for the 1983 film National Lampoon's Vacation, it was also used in the film's sequels National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), Vegas Vacation (1997) and Vacation (2015). Despite only peaking at number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during its original release, it has since become one of Buckingham's best known songs.
Seán Kelly was a Canadian humorist and writer.
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists who made National Lampoon Insanely Great by Rick Meyerowitz, is a 2010 book which was published by Harry N. Abrams of New York. The book consists of a compilation of work by a selection of writers and artists whose work appeared in National Lampoon magazine in the 1970s, as well as introductory commentary on those people and their work, by Meyerowitz and others. The book is hardback, coffee-table sized and is profusely illustrated.
Brian John McConnachie was an American actor, comedy writer, and children's book author.
A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever is an American book by Josh Karp that was published in 2006. It is a history of National Lampoon magazine and one of its three founders, Doug Kenney, during the 1970s. The book was based on numerous interviews with people who contributed to the magazine, and people who performed in The National Lampoon Radio Hour, and the stage show Lemmings.
Charles Rodrigues was an American cartoonist perhaps best known as a contributor to National Lampoon.
Candescent Films is an American film production company that produces and finances documentary and narrative films that explore social issues.
Douglas Tirola, also known as Doug Tirola, is an American filmmaker and writer who has worked as a director, executive producer and a producer. He is the owner and president of 4th Row Films, a movie and television production company. Tirola's work includes A Reason to Believe (1995), Hey Bartender (2013) and National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead (2015). Received a DUI on December 10, 2022 per Westport Journal.
Motto Pictures is a documentary production company based in Brooklyn, New York specializing in producing and executive producing documentary features. Motto secures financing, builds distribution strategies, and creatively develops films, and has produced over 25 feature documentaries and won numerous awards.
A Futile and Stupid Gesture is a 2018 American biographical comedy-drama film based on Josh Karp's book of the same title, directed by David Wain, and written by Michael Colton and John Aboud. The film stars Will Forte as comedy writer Douglas Kenney, during the rise and fall of National Lampoon.
Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt is an American director, writer, producer, and film professor at Princeton University. He is best known for his documentary films ReMastered: Massacre at the Stadium, Havana Motor Club, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, and Lumo.
Ed Bluestone is an American comedian, writer and actor.
Gail Burwen was an American illustrator best known for her work in underground comix and the science fiction genre of the 1970s. She illustrated the original cover of the controversial plant perception book The Secret Life of Plants published in 1973.