Blogorium Review: Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

 I find interesting parallels between Rodman Flender's Conan O'Brien Can't Stop and Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here; both films are ostensibly about a man who made his career entertaining people, and is taken away from that life (both, one could argue, by choice) and opts to start anew. Conan O'Brien and Joaquin Phoenix relaunch themselves as live performers, mixing stage appearances with musical sets, and the strain of that reinvention wears on them and their assistants. The difference is that Affleck presented his fictitious film about "Joaquin Phoenix" as a documentary and Rodman Flender is documenting what happened to Conan O'Brien after NBC famously bought out his contract and placed Jay Leno back into the hosting spot for The Tonight Show.

 O'Brien, feeling the void of not performing for the first time in twenty five years, elects to put together a stage show called The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, a play on his contractual agreement not to appear anywhere for five months. He brings together most of his backing band (notably minus Max Weinberg), hires two Coquettes (Fredericka Meek and Rachel Hollingsworth) to perform as his back up singers, his writers, assistant, and Andy Richter to take their show on the road for 44 dates.

 The title is more than appropriate for the film: O'Brien cannot stop performing and interacting with the public. During a show, O'Brien works out a skit with surprise guests Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, and in Seattle he invites Eddie Vedder onstage to sing "Baba O'Reilly." After he begs not to do anything for his two days off, O'Brien goes to his 25th Reunion at Harvard, band in tow, and decides to perform "Rock This Town" for the talent show. The following day, after a red-eye bus drive to Tennessee for Bonaroo, instead of kicking back, Conan opts to have a secret fan show at Jack White's studio and performs another full set before heading to the festival, playing the Comedy Tent with no air conditioning and 95% humidity. And before it's all over, O'Brien discovers he's been booked to introduce every act the next day, much to his chagrin.

Every show seems to include backstage time with the public, and O'Brien obliges with a smile. He greets every fan he meets, regardless of how exhausted he is after shows; his dressing room door is always open and he constantly gets up to take pictures with family members of the band or the Coquettes, even when it's clear that all Conan wants to do is rest his voice and call it a night. When a lone fan is outside one of the venues and O'Brien can't leave, he asks his assistant to bring up the photo his fan is holding so that he can sign it. While in Toronto, he mingles with three teenagers who drove sixty hours to make it to the show, and helps one of them get in without a government issued I.D., even after the kid makes a questionably Anti-Semitic remark. While at a truck stop outside of Boston, he gets out of the bus, talks to some women stopping for gas, and then hangs out with three more ladies who want to pray with him. All the while, he keeps up positive spirits, never letting the frustration of the NBC situation show in front of his supporters.

 Don't think that everything is sunshine and roses, however; Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is a "warts and all" documentary. It's clear early in the film that it does bother him, and the anger O'Brien admits to feeling tends to bubble over during meetings with his writers, manager and assistant, who bear the brunt of his sarcastic jabs, some of which border on insults. While O'Brien is consistently testing out jokes, insisting that his team is only allowed to speak while using a banana as a phone irks some of them, and his perfectionist attitude (and self doubt) tend to turn joke sessions into sometimes bitter exchanges.

 For the most part, it never reaches into a mean-spirited tone, save for one moment when Jon Hamm and Jack McBrayer come to visit Conan backstage in Los Angeles, and O'Brien unleashes a litany of "hick" jokes at the 30 Rock star that go over the line. It's clear the McBrayer is trying to have a sense of humor about Conan's wisecracks, insults, and at one point, a song, but his expression eventually turns from politely bemused to irritated with the barrage of demeaning comments. I have a hard time believing this was just a "bit," considering how much of Conan's comedy comes from a very dark place in the film, but it was the only genuinely uncomfortable moment in the film.

While he tries to avoid directly talking about Jay Leno or NBC for most of the proceedings, Conan does let one slip when a pizzeria attaches two articles about O'Brien on the boxes. He pretends the note is a telegram from Leno, which closes with "P.S. What is it like to have a soul?" that elicits laughter from his team, but underscores the dark side we see fleeting glimpses of in the film. There's also a pot-shot taken at TBS, the network he'd eventually sign with, when he derisively responds to their meeting with "when is the meeting with Oxygen? I have plans for Animal Planet."

  Despite the NBC shaped cloud that hovers over everything that happens, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is a very funny documentary / performance film, one that accentuates everything that Team Coco already liked about Conan while also giving us insight into the man behind the personality. While I was reminded at times of I'm Still Here, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is almost never uncomfortable in the same way, and feels more authentic than the "reality" Affleck and Phoenix presented under false pretenses. The humanizing element, complete with corny jokes and griping adds depth to smaller moments, like an impromptu version of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" in the Harvard dressing room. For O'Brien fans, this is an absolute "must-see," as someone who missed the tour, you'll see most of the show during the film. If you're curious about the whole Tonight Show situation, this might not reveal much, but I still think Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is well worth your time.