Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (2014)

This is a vaguely sad documentary about a high-powered Hollywood agent, Shep Gordon and it mostly is about why so many celebrities love him. Despite living a crazy lifestyle when he was younger and making a few morally questionable choices, the thrust of all this is that he IS a stand-up guy (a 'mensch') who does the right thing and lives by a higher moral code. Most of all, his clients and associates really like him and see him as a tremendously decent man. It's also a bit sad as although Gordon has an admirable life in many ways, he is wistful about now having a family of his own.The bottom line is that this is a decent time-passer though I am not sure how much folks who AREN'T in show business will enjoy this. It's well made but the subject matter is only moderately interesting--mostly because his life and friends are so foreign to most viewers.

The life and career of the legendary Hollywood insider, Shep Gordon.I had never heard of Shep Gordon before this documentary showed up on Netflix. Now I know he was instrumental in the rise of Alice Cooper and his legend, he helped create the "celebrity chef" and he was involved in the Cameron Crowe plane crash story fictionalized in "Almost Famous".We learn about the Hollywood Vampires, and the unlikely drinking duo of John Lennon and Alice Cooper. I say unlikely not just because how different they are musically, but the political aspects could have been mind-blowing (though Cooper insists he was apolitical at the time).We learn of the Anne Murray and Alice Cooper connection, which is even stranger than Lennon. Heck, in many ways this is far more a story of Alice Cooper than it is of Shep Gordon. If a Cooper documentary does not exist yet, expect one to come around soon thanks to his role in this.Is the story too positive? That seems to be the biggest complaint, that the film comes off as more of a Mike Myers love letter than a true documentary. Surely someone at some point must have had something negative to say? Maybe, maybe not. At the very least, Myers should be applauded just for getting this out there and letting the world know Gordon exists. Clearly Hollywood knows, but does anyone else?

Shep Gordon has managed many huge acts, first in the music business, and then in other areas ranging from film to cooking. He has also befriended just about every heavyweight in Hollywood. And yet it seems he's managed to do so while still being a good guy, a nice guy, an honorable guy. There are on camera interviews with Alice Cooper (who was Shep's 1st client, and who he has managed for 45 years!), Mick Fleetwood, Michael Douglas, Tom Arnold, Emeril Lagasse, Anne Murray, Mike Meyers, Willie Nelson, Sylvester Stallone and Steven Tyer. But the best interview subject is Shep himself, who has tremendously entertaining, often funny and occasionally tragic anecdotes about his many years in show business. Among the most interesting are the various clever, and sometimes amusingly devious ways Shep would raise his clients' public profiles and help make them stars. There's a genuine wisdom and even a spiritual side to Shep, who befriended the Dali Llama, and spent a week cooking for him as a way of giving back. Ultimately Shep realized, sadly late in the game, that there was more to life than work, and that he was missing out on having kids and a family. Not a 'change your life' film, but it's always engaging, like listening to the most fun and intelligent guest at a great party.

You know that famous line from, Almost Famous, "I am a golden god!"? That quote pretty much sums up the life and times of Shep Gordon, a would be prison guard turned drug dealer turned one of the most famous managers to some of the biggest musicians of their day. You know that scene from Almost Famous where the plane is going down, and the bandmates blurt out confessions? Shep Gordon was on that plane and so was Cameron Crowe, when he put that true outrageous moment into the movie. Shep Gordon's life is one very outrageous movie and now Mike Myers, in his directorial debut, turns it into a good time love letter and at times, moving documentary movie.More than outrageous, Shep is a legend in his excess of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Not one to miss an opportunity with the ladies, he would wear a t-shirt on tour that said, "No head, no backstage pass". But the magic of this film, something that Myers didn't craft on accident, is that the biggest legend of Shep's excess was the capacity of his heart. A kind and very generous man, Shep was every famous person's best friend because, unlike 99% of the music managers with their slimy reputation, he had the biggest heart in the room. After being ostrasized by the fellow prison guards because of his big unkempt hairstyle, Shep found himself holed up in a Hollywood hotel. That hotel turned out to be the infamous Landmark Motor Hotel selling drugs to none other than Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix. When Shep knew the heat would catch up to him sooner than later, he stepped away from dealing and got the idea from Hendrix to start managing music. "You're a Jew aren't you? You should manage music", and that's how it all started. Shep's first client was Alice Cooper, and they've been inseparable since. Even many, many, years and famous clients later, when Shep decided to retire he didn't retire from his best friend Cooper.It was with Cooper that Shep improvised press out of thin air turning Cooper into a star. Shep was a very adaptable manager who had a diversity of clients that spanned the hard rock stylings of Cooper, to the R&B Teddy Pendergrass, to the Canadian country good girl Anne Murray. He reached beyond music with many film producing credits, and when he became infatuated with the culinary arts, he represented the greatest chef's in the world, inventing the celebrity chef (Emeril Legasse among many others). The insight into each of these clients is truly wild and usually ended up with a happy ending; Pendergrass ending up a mixed bag tale.And while we could listen to Shep's wild tales and conquests forever, Myer's gets us deep access into his personal life, never letting us forget that this is a good human being who really made a difference in so many lives. His want for offspring keeps surfacing throughout. The mix of his earlier promiscuous life with his self sacrificial motivation to bring all of his clients everything they could ever want has left him without an heir to the Gordon empire. Shep gets closest to being a dad when tragedy strikes as an old girlfriend's grandchildren lose their mother and he comes to the rescue not only wildly financially but also as a loving father figure. That selfless deed is where the true legend of Shep Gordon lies, a supermensch, aka a superman."this" selfless deed is where the true legend of Shep Gordon lies, a supermensch, aka a superman.Matthew 7:12