MOVIES REVIEWS

Elaine Stritch Shoot Me Movie Review

ByChiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Feb 21, 2014

Title: Elaine Stritch Shoot Me

Director: Chiemi Karasawa

Starring: Elaine Stritch, Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, James Gandolfini, John Turturro, Cherry Jones, Hal Prince, George C. Wolfe, Nathan Lane.

The acclaimed documentary producer, Chiemi Karasawa, makes his directorial debut, depicting the life of the feisty and extraordinary 87 year old Broadway legend, Elaine Stritch.

The revealing and poignant ‘Elaine Stritch Shoot Me’ showcases the uncompromising Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress on and off stage, through some very fine and rare footage.

The cinema vérité approach is rewarding, since Elaine conveys her incredible humour as well as her most delicate emotional moments, as she proves to be a match for her colleagues and friends: Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, James Gandolfini, John Turturro, Cherry Jones, Hal Prince, George C. Wolfe, Nathan Lane.

Cantankerous and outspoken, Elaine washes away all the false smiles and niceties of show business, reminding that the spotlight needs to be conquered with hard work and guts. Stritch shares her personal struggles with ageing, diabetes and alcoholism, unveiling the darker side of the great artist that has conquered the Great White Way.

Technical: B

Story: A

Overall: B-

Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Elaine Stritch Shoot Me Movie

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.

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