Paul Williams Still Alive (2011)

Stephen Kessler, filmmaker and devout Paul Williams fan, says at the beginning of this would-be documentary that he didn't know singer/songwriter/actor Paul Williams was still alive. That's about as unbelievable as what follows. Kessler and his cameraman trail Williams around for two years, getting snippets of conversation on tape but mostly relying on TV clips. It seems Paul Williams, who was everywhere at once throughout the 1970s, is uninterested in talking about his past; 20 years sober by the end of filming, Williams is described by Kessler as one who looks forward and not back. That's fine, but there's no feeling for the crying fans in the audience who still hold Williams' music sacred, and there's no love from Williams over his achievements (he's a different person now). The subject is so petulant and uncommunicative that to say he's been changed for the better through sobriety is like a slap in the face. Williams is so much more alive--colorful and outrageous and funny--in those old variety show segues that one has to ask: is getting sober such a strain that it drains the life out of a person? **1/2 from **** (mainly for the music, and the brief on-camera interviews with Williams' long-time band leader, who seems like a genuinely nice person).

As a fan of Paul Williams I was looking forward to this documentary. Indeed I was heartened when the director, Stephen Kessler, begins his film explaining what a fan he was of the era in which Paul Williams was well... Paul Williams, and how big a fan he was of the man himself. Alas, we never get to see into Paul Williams.Unbelievably, while "Phantom of the Paradise" and fan conventions for that film is where Kessler's story starts, the director never delves into just what made "Phantom of the Paradise" so special to so many, never asks Paul Williams about the film, his inspiration, his contributions to the film. It might as well have never happened. Hello?! Mr. Kessler?! Maybe peal back the onion a bit on "Phantom of the Paradise"? Ask a few questions about the film? I was waiting... nothing. The film only begins to show what it could have been at the very end where we finally see into what Paul Williams thinks of all this, what he once was, and his career. But unfortunately it's too little too late. Even the uplifting ending comes off as manufactured and trite. Like after knowing each other for over 2 years Paul just happens to mention, "Oh... I got VHS tapes".I trust there's a future in Mexican food commercials for Mr. Kessler. At least there, in the one we saw in his documentary, we saw the cheese in the burrito.

This film is not a traditional biopic, but rather the director's recounting of the role Paul Williams has played throughout his life. How he remembers him from his youth, and how he figures into his current life. There are touches of Paul's early career and life, but the primary focus is on the friendship which grew between him and the director throughout the years of filming.Stephen Kessler, a once hopeful, now floundering director, had been a fan of Williams' work growing up, but lost track of him somewhere around the early 80's. Much to his surprise, he found out that the entertainer was not dead, as he had long assumed, and was still making public appearances. He then went on a journey to discover where Paul had disappeared to for all those absent years.The only flaw with this idea is that, for many of us, Paul never disappeared. Sure, his presence wasn't as strongly felt as it may have been a few decades ago, but even with his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse (now clean for 20 years), Paul was still making music and appearing in several films and TV shows. While I realize that Paul may have been flying under the radar for many, he was far from underground. Kessler ignores these recent efforts, leaving blank Paul's creative history between 1980 and the late 2000s when he started filming this documentary. When asked during a Q&A following a screening of this film if he was still writing music, Paul lovingly jokes that he is and he thinks Kessler would have been happier to have found him living a trailer and eating out of trashcans, as it would have been better for his movie. This film is not really one about Paul Williams, per se, it seems more about Kessler's search to find out something about his past, about his own slipping into obscurity, and the ways in which filming Paul transforms from an idea, to a crutch, to a renewed hope in his own career...and a friendship between the two.While I feel like some discredit was done to Paul by lacking to mention the full spectrum of his work, I am glad to have a film that can renew interest in him and his many talents. The film is fully entertaining and Williams is delightful, albeit not quite the focus that the title might lead one to believe.

The gist of "Paul Williams Still Alive" (which I caught at its final SXSW screening in Austin this March) is simply this: would-be feature film documentary maker Stephen Kessler was so obsessed with the way the AM-radio hits penned by diminutive 1970s entertainer Paul Williams had made his teen-aged heart go all a-flutter that he decided to make a documentary about Williams -- without even realizing that his "late, great" musical hero was still very much alive! This is a cinematic concept that should'nt have worked -- but, thank the Pop Culture gods, it did!Mind you, it never would have come close to passing muster if Williams hadn't kept a veritably complete reference library of his clips on every bad music, comedy, variety, game and chat show that existed during the 70s and 80s. Nor would it have worked if Williams hadn't allowed Kessler full use of that library to reveal the inevitable downhill slide that nearly all of Hollywood's denizens of that time period were prone to follow! For his part, Kessler reveals himself to be (potentially) the world's worst director of a film like this as well! It's only when he and his childhood hero miraculously find them-selves on "the same page" (courtesy of an encounter with third-world terrorism, of all things!) that the alchemy begins to take place and the hill of Tinseltown dross turns miraculously into a mountain of pure gold!!! Fans of schlock will be delighted either way, as they roll about ecstatically in the slushy mounds of 70s celebrity offal expelled by the coked-up likes of Robert Blake, Karen Carpenter, Dick Clark, Kermit the Frog, Jack Klugman, Peter Lawford, Tony Randall, Burt Reynolds, Telly Savalas, Barbra Streisand, John Travolta and more!But more sensitive viewers will find themselves fighting to hold back the tears as the characters refuse to merely remain the two-dimensional "stars" that we enjoyed chuckling derisively at on our little cathode-ray tubes. Watch in stunned semi-silence as a slack-jawed star-gazer, obsessed with the tear-jerking tune-age that kept his appreciation of Paul Williams from advancing beyond the analytical level of a 12-year-old, metamorphoses into an insightful, savvy observer of character before your very eyes! Shudder in awe as the short-statured subject reveals himself to be more than worth the effort of analyzing! Whether your personal reference point to Williams is The Muppets ("The Rainbow Connection"), The Carpenters (Rainy Days & Mondays"), or Brian DePalma's midnight movie cult classic "The Phantom of the Paradise", you can trust me at least on one thing about this film: it WILL make you glad that Paul Williams is still alive!-- Kenneth W. Lieck