Undescribable Perfection

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I enjoyed this doc. when I just saw it on Showtime, but I was amazed that it never pointed out that Paul Williams did not write the music for most of his best and most famous songs (other than that POS "Just An Old Fashioned Love Song"). The music was written by great songwriters like Roger Nichols (all the Carpenters hits) and Kenny Ascher ("Rainbow Connection", "You and Me Against the World")and even the singer/songwriter Biff Rose. Williams only wrote the lyrics. The songs that Williams wrote alone were mediocre, and maybe this was why his career hit the skids after he stopped working with Nichols and the others. Even "Evergreen" was written by Barbra Streisand, with Williams only supplying the lyrics. I have to admit that I was also under the impression that Paul Williams was this great songwriter who had written some great pop tunes, but I was astonished to find that he had musicians that wrote all the music, and he seemed to take all the credit for all the hits, when he only supplied the lyrics, which were fine, but a song is a lot more than just lyrics. The only mention of Roger Nichols in the film was when Williams briefly said,"When Nichols and I were working together back in etc..." and that's it. If you look at his career after his collaborations, can you find any good songs he wrote on his own, other than the horrible, "Just An Old Fashioned Love Song"? For the documentarian to overlook this aspect of Williams' career is pretty sad...

This film is a must-see for anyone who grew up in the 1970s, back when you couldn't watch TV without coming into contact with Paul Williams. You'll be transported back to the days when you sat on the shag carpeting in front of your family's console television, close enough to reach out and turn the knob to change channels. And the soundtrack will conjure up memories of riding in the back seat of your best friend's parents' station wagon, listening to Casey Kasem counting down the Top 40.Archival footage of Williams skydiving in an episode of "Circus of the Stars" is inserted at three different points in the film, each time conveying a different mood, coinciding with the stages of his life. Williams describes the feeling of going from A-list celebrity at the top of the world, to depressed, isolated drug addict, to sober husband and father who finally has control of both his career and his self-esteem.Director Stephen Kessler lives out the fantasy of finding your childhood idol, getting to follow him around, and becoming close friends. Don't try this yourself, because you'll probably be arrested for stalking. Just enjoy the hilarious relationship that develops between these two men and the inspiring story they have to tell.

This is a wonderful treat for Paul Williams fans (of which I am one), and it's also a semi-serious portrait of recovery and survival from 1970's celebrity and the excesses that often came with that lifestyle.My only problem with this film is that the director, Stephen Kessler, a self-professed fan, is a presence in the film the same way Michael Moore often is in his movies. Kessler is likable and it's apparent that the film probably couldn't have been presented without some insight as to how and why he made it (no way he could have been invisible). And some of the film's funniest moments stem from the awkward and sometimes intrusive presence of Kessler and his crew.But I would have liked a better sense of Kessler as an individual and a passionate fan rather than a challenged documentarian (he's a constant presence but we don't get to know him well enough). His approach also left me wanting a more linear treatment, like that of an A&E Biography; Williams' output was so extensive that much of his career retrospective here seems rushed. Kessler includes a lot of awkward cinema-verite moments, many of which are entertaining, but for me there's not enough coverage of Williams' acting, writing and recording work and I would have liked more focus on that.Still, I'm grateful that he made the film, and that Mr. Williams was a (sometimes) willing subject.

This film is not a traditional biopic, but rather the director's recounting of the role Paul Williams has played throughout his life. How he remembers him from his youth, and how he figures into his current life. There are touches of Paul's early career and life, but the primary focus is on the friendship which grew between him and the director throughout the years of filming.Stephen Kessler, a once hopeful, now floundering director, had been a fan of Williams' work growing up, but lost track of him somewhere around the early 80's. Much to his surprise, he found out that the entertainer was not dead, as he had long assumed, and was still making public appearances. He then went on a journey to discover where Paul had disappeared to for all those absent years.The only flaw with this idea is that, for many of us, Paul never disappeared. Sure, his presence wasn't as strongly felt as it may have been a few decades ago, but even with his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse (now clean for 20 years), Paul was still making music and appearing in several films and TV shows. While I realize that Paul may have been flying under the radar for many, he was far from underground. Kessler ignores these recent efforts, leaving blank Paul's creative history between 1980 and the late 2000s when he started filming this documentary. When asked during a Q&A following a screening of this film if he was still writing music, Paul lovingly jokes that he is and he thinks Kessler would have been happier to have found him living a trailer and eating out of trashcans, as it would have been better for his movie. This film is not really one about Paul Williams, per se, it seems more about Kessler's search to find out something about his past, about his own slipping into obscurity, and the ways in which filming Paul transforms from an idea, to a crutch, to a renewed hope in his own career...and a friendship between the two.While I feel like some discredit was done to Paul by lacking to mention the full spectrum of his work, I am glad to have a film that can renew interest in him and his many talents. The film is fully entertaining and Williams is delightful, albeit not quite the focus that the title might lead one to believe.