Conan O'Brien Documentary Review

"I am angry," Conan O'Brien admits in Rodman Flender's tour doc, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop. "I'm trying not to be ... but sometimes I'm so mad I can't even breathe."

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

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Landmark Regent

1045 Broxton Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Category: Movie Theaters

Region: Out of Town

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• Conan O'Brien
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• Conan O'Brien Can't Stop
• Television
• Talk Shows

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Prohibited from appearing on television for six months after his early-2010 break with NBC, Conan hit the road, capitalizing on his newfound social-networking currency to attract an audience to intentionally vaudeville-reminiscent live shows blending self-deprecating stand-up with self-indulgent musical performances aided by his celebrity friends.

Sometimes painted in the press as the excessively petulant jilted wife in the NBC divorce, here the comedy writer–turned–late-night host comes off as less an entitled whiner than a perfectionist: NBC's crime was not taking away his toy (The Tonight Show) but taking away his control. (O'Brien's midlife crisis has been examined from every angle, although the psychological impact of his evolution from behind-the-scenes nerd to camera-ready personality seems like it could use further analysis.)

As fly-on-the-wall as it gets — meaning the camera work is often sloppy — Flender's film presents O'Brien in full-on Tortured Star mode, alternately overexerting himself and complaining that he's being overworked, courting attention and sulking alone.

The portrayal is at times startlingly negative, to the point where you wonder if O'Brien is consciously playing up the diva act for the camera. "Anyone who knows me who watches [the live show] says, 'Now that's just raw you,' " O'Brien says. As protective of his persona as he's proven to be, any time he goes out of his way to insist that he's "keeping it real" scans as suspicious.—Karina Longworth (Landmark Regent)