Albert Books is an acquired taste of comedy. He’s the type of actor where many people have probably heard his voice on The Simpsons and Finding Nemo,but probably won’t want to sit through one of his movies for 10 minutes. He’s the subject of a documentary on HBO Albert Brooks: Defending My Life. I remember a reviewer of his seminal comedy Lost in America showing it to his Boomer parents who immediately stop laughing once the couple lost all their money at the Las Vegas casino and ended up broke.
Yet, that was the joke. In that movie, Brooks starred, directed and co-wrote the comedy classic about yuppie Boomers (along with the underrated Julie Hagerty) who liquidate their assets when they feel their lives aren’t fulfilled to sell their house, buy a motor home and hit the open road. But when they stop in Vegas for a quick re-marriage, his wife wants to do it right and they get a suite at The Desert Inn. He falls asleep and she gambles away everything but $802 of their savings. They had a “nest egg” of about $140,000, which is about three times that amount today.
David and Linda Howard, the characters in Lost in America are selfish. David feels that he deserves stuff because he’s different. Like the main characters on Seinfeld, David and Linda felt the rules didn’t apply to them but they’re vocal about it. Some of the best scenes involve Brooks’ David telling his boss that he spent a weekend calling his friends asking them if he deserved a promotion he didn’t get; trying to convince a casino boss (Garry Marshall) that they should get their money back because they’re not regular gamblers; and arguing with a highway patrolman on a motorcycle they can’t pay the speeding ticket and maybe the metal ladder on the back of the motorhome messed up his radar.
It’s no surprise Larry David is one of the interviewees, since Seinfeld seems like it could’ve been a sitcom Brooks would’ve made. Brooks’ comedies earlier comedies, Real Life and Modern Romance, also looked at the selfish side of people. In Real Life, Brooks plays a fictional version of himself who documents a Phoenix area family played by Charles Grodin and the also underrated Frances Lee McCain 24/7. Inspired by the PBS documentary series An American Family about the Louds, it shows how the documentary becomes more about the filmmakers. Brooks admits he chose the family because they were in a warmer climate and they’d begin filming in winter. The other family lived in a colder climate.
His next movie Modern Romance was about a film editor, played by Brooks, who is involved in a relationship with a bank executive played by Kathryn Harrold but he’s constantly ruining whatever good moments they have. It’s really about whether he feels she’s the right one and that he doesn’t know if he should be searching for someone else or trying to make their relationship work. The movie was reportedly a favorite of Stanley Kubrick who said Brooks wonderfully portrayed how it is to be really selfish.
That might be why his 1991 comedy Defending Your Life is a nice departure. Brooks plays Daniel Hillard, an ad executive who dies in a car accident and must show that he’s overcome his fear and can move on in the universe. In many ways, selfishness is about fear. That’s why FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is about. Both Lost and Defending are the two movies where he works the best at portraying how American neurosis was during the latter quarter of the 20th Century. Since most characters work in advertising and marketing, they’re basically about lying to people to sell a product and what’s more selfish than lying to someone to get what you want. But both men are different as Daniel seems to have some humility while David is too arrogant to see he’s his own problem.
The documentary has the numerous interviewees praising his comedy and work. Steven Spielberg, Chris Rock, Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow, Sarah Silverman, Sharon Stone and filmmaker James L. Brooks (no relation but more on that later), who he’s worked with multiple times all have nothing but nice things to say about it. This is very common of documentaries but thankfully, director Rob Reiner has the older clips of Brooks to back it up. Seeing old clips of Brooks on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson are what makes this documentary more meaningful.
Also, Reiner fims scenes of himself talking with Brooks candidly as they discuss what it was like growing up in L.A. children of famous people. Reiner is the son of Carl and Estelle Reiner. Brooks was the son of Harry Einstein, a popular comedian also known as Parkyakarkus, who famously suffered a fatal heart attack on Nov. 24, 1958 during a comedy roast of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. His mother was Thelma Leeds, who was a singer and actress during the early years of Hollywood in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, who had to give up the limelight to be a mother. Brooks says he made Mother as a way to deal with his relationship with his own mother.
Even worse, Brooks’ legal name was Albert Einstein when the other Albert Einstein was already a household name. He had also been given a shout-out by Carl Reiner on a talk show as one of the funniest people alive when he was only a teen. Brooks would entertain Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (also no relation) among others during house parties. When you can make Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks laugh as a teenager, that’s some good motivation but does it also mean others will find him funny. Part of the reason Brooks may not have wanted to be a stand-up was the death of his father because it happened with Brooks was only 11.
Reiner himself had a mother, Estelle, who was also a performer and entertainer herself. She became famous for the diner who observes Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm in When Harry Met Sally… and utters the classic line, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Seeing Reiner and Brooks talk about growing up in the shadows of Hollywood and then trying to break in is like seeing two war buddies reunited years later and they have a bond that others won’t understand. This is what makes Defending My Life worth watching.
That and a few tidbits about some of his famous roles. Brooks says it was his idea to have his character sweat profusely during a live TV broadcast in Broadcast News after having watched another news anchor on CNN sweat. Unfortuntately, there’s only a short mention of Monica Johnson, the screenwriter who helped Brooks co-write Real Life, Modern Romance, Lost in America, Mother and The Muse before her death in 2010. And only Brooks’ brother, Bob Einstein (otherwise known as Super Dave Osborne), is mentioned once in passing.
It’s hard to squeeze 76 years of person’s life into just an hour and a half. Also, why did he choose the last name Brooks as his professional name? Mel Brooks’ real name was Melvin Kaminsky and did he try to piggy-back off of it? Brooks has joked that the other Albert Einstein changed his name to sound more intelligent. Anyway, you have to give Reiner some credit. However, his later years following Finding Nemo are also just mentioned in passing. But people don’t watch documentaries just to see something they can quickly Google.
And just like his movies, people might find this documentary boring. But fans of Brooks’ work will enjoy it.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 