Call Me Lucky

At the risk of sounding cynical, the fact that this was made before Barry Crimmins' death makes the testimonies more credible, in a way. People are celebrating and stating the importance of this man, and it's not because he's passed away and because you "have" to be respectful to the dead. Of course not all interviewees in documentaries about the dead are lying or embellishing, but it's something that's often on my mind when I watch them.

Anyway, this is a very good documentary with one possible downside: I felt a little strange about Crimmins' abuse as a child being a plot twist of sorts, at least at first. It seemed a little tacky to build suspense to this "revelation" through showing snippets of interviews with his sister. In the end it works, and it does lend the second half of the film a sense of power and emotion, but maybe other survivors of abuse would want to know the documentary is going to cover that stuff beforehand. I think it's a good approach for viewers who aren't victims of childhood abuse, to jolt their systems and make it more impactful, but there is a chance this sudden shift at the halfway point could prove difficult and too confrontational for people who have survived abuse and don't know it's coming within the documentary.

In this case, the somewhat comparable halfway plot shift in Goldthwait's excellent World's Greatest Dad probably works a bit better, thanks to the story being fictional.