Movie review of “Call Me Lucky,” comic Bobcat Goldthwait’s earnest homage to mentor and political comedian Barry Crimmins and Crimmins’ crusade against Internet child pornography.
“Call Me Lucky,” Bobcat Goldthwait’s documentary portrait of his professional mentor, the political comedian Barry Crimmins, is an earnest homage that also honors Crimmins’ crusade to drive child pornography off the Internet.
Although stand-up comedy is often fueled by anger, the rage expressed in Crimmins’ diatribes knows no bounds. His particular targets are the U.S. government and the Roman Catholic Church. In the movie’s first half, many colleagues give him credit for being a founder and mainstay of the stand-up scene in Boston. The film includes snippets of his notoriously profane stage rants. But not enough of his work is shown to give a satisfying taste of a live performance.
The movie strains to drum up mystery as to the sources of Crimmins’ rage. When it finally spills the beans, you feel unnecessarily manipulated. Those beans are even more horrifying than most people could imagine. And your heart goes out to Crimmins, 63, for his courage, honesty and fearless truth-telling.
Movie Review
‘Call Me Lucky,’ a documentary directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. 106 minutes. Not rated; for mature audiences. SIFF Film Center.
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The Internet was relatively new and largely unregulated in the 1990s, and in those early days, chat rooms in which pedophiles exchanged photos and information flourished. In the most devastating scene, Crimmins, testifying at a 1995 congressional hearing on child pornography, clashes with a clueless executive of AOL, which eventually shut down such chat rooms. For that alone, Crimmins is a hero.