Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: June 24th, 2011 (limited)

Starring: Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Steve Kroft, Eddie Vedder, Stephen Colbert

Directed by: Rodman Flender Prod

Premise: After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC's Tonight Show, O'Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. Filmmaker Rodman Flender's documentary, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O'Brien's "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base. At times angry, mostly hilarious, we see a comic who does not stop --performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O'Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large and remote to fill a void within himself?

[Pubrick]

That's nice that they made a doco and all, thus milking this non-tragedy for all its worth, but I don't for a second think this is going to be sincerely moving. Maybe to fellow millionaires who can relate to the indescribable anguish you feel when you go from making 20million dollars a year to 10 million. Oh the humanity.

Get the fuck out of here, dramatic poster.

[diggler]

You're totally right, and I can't wait to see it.

[RegularKarate]

I stood in line for this at SXSW.  We had passes and not badges so we didn't get in, but while we were waiting, Conan walked by and everyone in the line yelled out "Conan!" and he looked and the line full of a million dudes, said "Hey!" then noticed my and my friend's girlfriends and got all excited and said "OH, LADIES!" and started doing his slicking his eyebrows and dancing around, rawring thing. 

I heard the movie is pretty good.

[matt35mm]

I saw it at SXSW (I knew I wouldn't be able to get into the screening with Conan, so I went to the second screening). It is very good. It's not really about how we should feel sorry for him for The Tonight Show not working out--his attitude on that is that it's obviously not what he wanted to have happen, but nobody should feel sorry for him because he's still doing very well for himself.

The movie is actually about how Conan cannot stop. He has to perform to the point of exhaustion for anyone and everyone, or else he gets very depressed. During his tour, on his scheduled days off, he just held extra performances. He didn't take a day off. He can't. If he's just in an elevator with one of his interns, he'll start dancing for them. Even when the people he sees everyday wishes he would stop, he doesn't.

It's actually a pretty raw documentary. Conan doesn't seem to be too cautious about what gets filmed, and so you get to see a lot of sides to this guy who cannot ever seem to relax. He talks pretty honestly about the depression he gets into when he's not performing, how he always has to be out there entertaining the crowds, and how that puts a strain on his ability to be there for his family--leaving his kids for a couple of months to go do the tour was painful for him, but not doing the tour would have been even more painful.

It's also insanely funny. Conan is so much funnier in real life than he is on his show. I don't think I've ever laughed more during a movie.