Gilbert Gottfried has long been a polarizing comedian, you always know what you're going to get from Gilbert.
The same can't be said for the 2017 documentary GILBERT, which provides a penetrating and unfiltered look at his personal life after many years on the stand up circuit.
Countless clips of TV appearances, commercials and films document Gilbert's rise from a very young comedian, to major film roles, to present day.
Documentary Filmmaker Neil Berkeley has complete access to Gilbert at home and on the road and what emerges is actually a very sad portrait of a kind, quiet man with a huge stage persona.
In many scenes in his Manhattan apartment, we see his candid, kind and loving interactions with his two children and his wife.
We watch as Gilbert takes a city bus to the airport or to gigs, determined to save every dollar he can, seven days a week.
He hordes shampoo and soap from hotels, stays at the Holiday Inn Express and eats free food from the buffets.
But Gilbert on stage is an entirely different animal. Unfiltered, profane in even the most delicate engagement, Gilbert challenges audiences to dislike him.
When they do, he doubles down, piling the dirtiest jokes of all time into crowds if they appear sensitive.
We watch Gilbert as his lack of filter gets him into big trouble at a Comedy Central Roast just a month after 9/11, but that pales compared to the uproar over Gilbert's tweets after the Tsunami in Japan.
A terrific line up of comics, including Dave Attell, Richard Belzer, Lewis Black, Susie Essman and Jim Gaffigan tell stories about Gilbert over the years and share their perspective on Gilbert on & off stage.
Like many comedians, Gilbert appears to carry a lot of pain just beneath the surface. GILBERT is an unexpectedly powerful look at the real man behind the laughs and gets a B. Kudos to the entire Gottfried family for allowing cameras to tell a tale of family & fame and one surprisingly fragile man balancing both.
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