Belushi

The barrier that looms over so many posthumous artist biographies isn't broken through here, but Cutler's documentary does get you close up so you can feel the texture and sense the breadth of that wall.

Even though Cutler takes creative license, occasionally using animation and intertitles to insert unnecessary commentary for dramatic effect, the impact of the never-heard-before audio is astounding.

It is terribly sad and one more reminder that fame on a mass level can be a curse. Why the best ones rarely feel they deserve it remains a mystery this movie doesn't try to solve.

This felt more like a simple refocusing of our attention, as the parade of greatest-hits clips played on, and the admiring voices commented and sorrowed in turn. Not quite a waste, but a missed opportunity for sure.

Highlighted by never-before-heard audio interviews that were part of a 2005 oral history, this polished, affecting overview is far from exhaustive but skilfully sums up Belushi's life and death.

R.J. Cutler's Belushi is a far more rounded look at the self-destructive comedy great than most of what we have seen before.

What I couldn’t get enough of, and there’s a lot of it, is the animation.

If you, like me, only know Belushi for his work, R.J. Cutler’s Showtime Documentary “Belushi” will give you a much deeper perspective of the man – not just the performer.

Compiled for an oral history that came out a few years back, this film uses those first-person discussions as the framework to reconstruct a life upon, and it adds a great deal of emotional heft.

Packs an emotional punch in its final moments.