There are just some names and some people that are so big that they feel like they are the most powerful encapsulations of energy and creativity that one could imagine. At the end of R.J Cutler’s 2020 documentary, it’s title blasts upon the screen and grows and grows before it zooms past us and seemingly into infinity. That title and that name is Belushi and that final blast and zoom couldn’t befit the documentary’s titular figure better. So large, so grand, so uncontrollable and so tragic that the challenge to encapsulate John Belushi’s life into a 108 minute film seems fruitless. Belushi however knows exactly what to focus on and when and through skilled direction, editing and use of animation, the film and its subject become one of the most engrossing films of the year and certainly my favourite documentary of it.

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Collated from interviews conducted for Tanner Colby’s book Belushi: A Biography, featuring all the chief figures of Belushi’s life and the stars and familiar voices that surrounded him at the time (Chevy Chase, Harold Ramis, Carrie Fisher, Dan Ackroyd), as well as incorporating a litany of personal footage provided by Belushi’s widow Judy, who despite having an initial reluctance to the project gave her co-operation more than willingly. Her frequent voice is in many ways the anchor of the film in absence of John’s. We do get footage and voice with John, not just in his film and TV appearances, but also in private recordings and as yet unseen interviews. Cutler knows very well when to bring his star out and when for us to stand back and listen to those that he affected in his life as we stare at pictures and footage, sometimes juxtaposing what we are hearing and sometimes supplementing it. These voices also add a further haunting quality to the proceedings through the unknowable fact that half of the voices we hear are from those who have also passed prior to this film’s creation. The film is edited tremendously well by Maris Berzins and Joe Beshenkovsky, showing a great aptitude to not overly edit or make more visual certain film elements and images. In the absence of any grand effects we really get to view Belushi’s work in an isolation that hasn’t been available since. An isolation that is also paired with a deep contextualisation. One the film’s most distinct choices in its presentation is through the use of animation, directed by Robert Valley (of Gorillaz music video fame) and his animation company at Passion Pictures. These animations not only give life to certain elements of Belushi’s life that are almost unknowable in the visual sense, but also incorporates a frequent choice to have us return to the child that we are slowly getting further and further away from. A beautiful choice sparingly used for maximum effect. Belushi is a chronicle of a life that manages to tell the near entirety of its figure’s 33 years without ever once feel truncated or fleeting. There is ultimately an elegance about the way Belushi is presented that brings all the heart and tragedy of the story to the forefront in all the best ways. One of the most poignant elements in the film is the choice to have certain letters and diaries of Belushi read aloud and performed by Bill Hader. Hader’s talent really seemingly knows no bounds and his craft, attention to detail, realism and warmth in delivering these haunting words with his just his voice, is just another testament to his gargantuan level of acting expertise.  

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But Belushi can also take on the fashion of those futile, wild and rightfully beloved 80’s comedies that make up much of the second half of the film and the final years of Belushi’s life. What makes Belushi work so well and ultimately grow to be all the more tragic is the reveling and enjoyment it takes during those scenes and periods of life where joy and happiness was the crux of everything, although Cutler does frequently re-incorporate the facts and voices that illuminate the pain behind and sometimes in plain sight of what is occurring on screen, no matter how raucous or rebellious. Belushi does at times lean into the clichés of the genre of biographical documentaries with tragic figure at the helm, particularly with its initial cold open highlighting the pivotal point in the figures life, before returning to where it all began. This cold open and the harrowingly poignant narration of Harold Ramis that accompanies it however does perfectly set out the end that we are propelling too at a rapid pace, which is obviously needed for anyone less informed about Belushi's life and death. Although we may now the one line fact surrounding Belushi’s death, having it presented to us in a human, visual and auditory presentation puts us in a wholly different mindset entirely as we set about on the journey the film takes. Cutler of course makes the poignant intentional choice to lead us deeper and deeper into the joy of certain eras, making us forget about what awaits us. The following moments where Cutler reminds us are always effective and affecting, with their repeated bluntness. In presenting the highs and lows in such juxtaposition, we get a far more balanced and truthful presentation of this mans life than we have before in films and projects that have more or less solely focused on the tragedy. That’s not how tragedy works and that’s now how Belushi’s life was. Belushi is a tightrope act that I can only describe as an elegant, wild, fun and poignantly truthful feature film about an icons life.

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A beautifully constructed 9/10 from Cutler, who has made a piece that delivers in all the ways that we would so wish in a film about such an incredible figure. Cutler balances and imbues the tragedy of Belushi’s end with a deftness and craft that plays it as a horrific inevitably and makes the film an elegy. Cutler’s choice to never play such a terrible thing as a frequently used emotion brewing card exemplifies his skill in making this film as a whole. Cutler has crafted a film not unlike Belushi himself; a hilarious, skilled, tragic beast with a wildness and a heart unparalled.

P.S. If I had to pick a favourite Belushi product it would probably have to be The Blues Brothers. What a god damn crazy and brilliant film that is. We have seen those sorts of mad-cap big budget passion projects go so terribly wrong before and to see one so perfect work not in spite of its insanity, but because of it, is a wonderful thing to view and view again indeed.

P.P.S Plus any film where I get to see and hear the SNL song Falling for me, Paul Schafer’s ode to Chevy Chase performed by the triple threat of female talent from the first collection of ‘Not ready for Prime Time Players’, gets bonus points in my book.

-          - Thomas Carruthers