Thursday, May 23, 2013

Mel Brooks: Make a Noise

From the day his cabbie uncle took him to see Anything Goes on Broadway, nine-year-old Melvin Kaminsky knew he was going to make it in show business, and that was that. Changing his name to Brooks, he set out with an almost obnoxious ferocity and unremitting humor on a career that has now spanned over seven decades. From writing on television for Sid Caesar, making immensely popular comedy albums with Carl Reiner, creating the TV series Get Smart, marrying and often collaborating with Anne Bancroft, his life's love, writing and directing classic, groundbreaking comedies (and some that weren't so hot), becoming a Hollywood player funding major projects for young directors such as David Lynch and David Cronenberg,  and reinventing himself in the theater with The Producers, he has more than followed through on his boyhood certainty. Although any documentary that features an interview with the comedy legend and many clips from his films is guaranteed to contain more than a handful of laughs, Robert Trachtenberg's Mel Brooks: Make a Noise barely scratches the surface, divulging surprisingly few details of his work and personal life.