2012
Directed By Ryan
Polito
The Greatest Movie ever rolled is Doug Bensons follow up to
his 2007 documentary Super High Me. Both films have titles inspired/lifted from
Morgan Spurlock documentaries, Greatest Movie Ever Sold and Super-Size Me. While Super High Me took the concept of Super-Size
Me and replaced McDonalds with marijuana, Greatest Movie Ever Rolled takes the
concept of Greatest Movie Ever Sold and replaces corporate sponsorship with a
stand up tour… sort of. This is really just a film about life on the road with
Doug Benson and Graham Elwood.
This is not a sober examination of the isolation and
depression that make up the life of a road comic and despite the title this is
not a stoner movie either. GMER is a
lean 80 minutes of hilarious interaction between Doug and Graham. The movie
shows our protagonists trying to sell tickets, getting high with fans,
traveling from gig to gig and promoting a show on morning television; more or
less what you would expect to see in a movie that chronicles Doug Benson’s life
on the road. The thing that makes this film unique and worthy of your time is how
naturally funny Doug and Graham are with one another. They have great chemistry
and are clearly close friends outside this tour.
While the film appears to have been shot on DSLR and GoPro
cameras it looks just fine. I’m not sure how many people who are watching this
movie would have enjoyed it more if it had a more cinematic feel but I really
enjoyed the guerilla style filmmaking that allowed for improvised moments and
an overall feeling of authenticity. It’s not glossy but neither are its
subjects. The only reason I mention this is because I’ve seen a couple of
reviews that took the time to mention that the film looked cheap or
unprofessional. So, in response, I wanted to take a moment to say the look of
this film in no way lessens the experience and in fact I would argue that it adds
to the film.
Doug Benson and Graham Elwood are both touring comics who
host successful podcasts that focus on movies. Doug Loves Movies is a movie
trivia show while Grahams Comedy Film Nerds is more of a movie review/news
show. These are two men who have a deep
appreciation of film and it shows throughout. I would highly recommend this
documentary to anyone with an interest in stand-up comedy.
Greatest Movie Ever Rolled is currently streaming on Netflix
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