‘STEVE! (martin)’ review: A documentary that is more than celebrity image management

The barrage of celebrity documentaries that have arrived in the wake of 2020’s “The Last Dance” tend to be exercises in image management. Unlike the dishier genre of celebrity memoir, these are scrapbooks for the screen. “STEVE! a documentary in 2 pieces” on Apple TV+ avoids some of those pitfalls better than most.

He is most introspective when describing the evolution of his stage act. If comedy is about building and releasing tension through set-up and punchline, “I thought, what if I created tension and never released it?” That would mean “the audience would eventually have to pick their own place to laugh.”

This was also how Martin distinguished himself from his peers. So much comedy in the ’60s and ’70s was political. Martin went in the opposite direction and he frames it as a desire to do something different. But you also wonder if there’s an aversion to getting his hands dirty. The film doesn’t touch on this directly, but later, when he and longtime friend Martin Short are going over material for an upcoming tour, Martin shakes his head “no” at one joke: “We don’t want to get that political.

This was apparent even early in his career. In an old clip, an interviewer says, “I get the sense that you really are quite buttoned up and nobody’s going to get too close to Steve Martin. And yet your persona is ‘I’m the wild and crazy guy and I’ll do anything.'” Martin just nods a little. “Yeah.”

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