When I grew up, it was basically at this time where Gary Coleman had almost become dehumanized into a celebrity punchline. I didn’t grow up watching him on TV, and only knew about him from his coverage in tabloaids. He seemed to be this thing people enjoyed to watch, but not appreciate why they ever wanted to watch him in the first place. While Gary Coleman clearly has his own story, this is really a pervasive problem with child stars, as they really become tabloid fodder far more than they should. I think the culmination of this peaked with Honey Boo Boo, when Hollywood essentially created a spectacle just to mock it, but honestly they have overly scrutinized everyone from Drew Barrymore to Amanda Bynes, from Shia LaBeouf to Justin Bieber.
It comes as no surprise that the story of Gary Coleman is much more complicated than a flashy tabloid story, and this documentary does a solid job of shaping Gary’s life through the unreliable voices of those closest to him. Every person seems to contend that they were the closest, and nobody knew him like they did, from his parents, to his wife, to his best friend and manager. Everyone has a story to tell, but by allowing for their perspectives to be challenged, the narrative winds up being somewhere in between everyone’s stories.
He wasn’t a drunk or drug addict. He was just born with charisma.
The audio description was fine. It’s a documentary with some archival footage, but mostly
Final Grade: B