Paul Williams: Still Alive

A 3W Films presentation of the Mambo Entertainment production. (Worldwide sales: WME Entertainment, La.) Created by Jim Czarnecki, Stephen Kessler, Mike Wilkins, David Zieff. Executive producers, Robert Cohen, Lesa Lakin. Co-producer, Alicia Van Couvering. Directed, compiled by Stephen Kessler.With: Paul Williams, Stephen Kessler, Mariana Williams, Chris Caswell.An interesting factor happened to Stephen Kessler on his method to finishing "Paul Williams: Still Alive," his affectionate portrait from the diminutive dynamo who loomed improbably large like a pop-culture luminary throughout the seventies. After serendipitously searching for his childhood idol, and beginning production on which he clearly intended -- initially, a minimum of -- like a melancholy ode to some faded star, Kessler ended up forging an unlikely friendship and, along the way, creating a more potent, much deeper and much more idiosyncratic documentary. Pic could click with baby seniors and Gen-Xers in a variety of formats, but nostalgia is going to be only a part of its appeal. For the advantage of individuals who updated at the end of: Through the '70s, Paul Williams gained fame and fortune like a prodigiously prolific songwriter, penning enduringly popular standards for example "Wet Days and Mondays," "We have Only Begun," "I Will not Serve you for a Day Without you" and "Just a classic-Fashioned Love Song" for the kind of Three Dog Evening, the Craftsmen, Helen Reddy and, no kidding, David Bowie. He authored for movies (generating Academy awards for "Evergreen," co-written with Barbra Streisand for "A Star comes into the worldInch and "The Rainbow Connection" for "The Muppet Movie"), had success like a solo recording artist, and came wide exposure like a film and TV actor. Kessler covers all this and much more in "Paul Williams: Still Alive," and duly notes that, like several a lot of '70s celebs, Williams spent a lot of the 1980s and 1990's from the spotlight while recuperating from the personal and professional meltdown fueled by booze and medicines. A TV-commercial director whose feature credits include "Las vegas Vacation" and "The Independent," Kessler immediately cops to as being a longtime fan of his subject. He discloses that, like a chubby kid becoming an adult in Queens, N.Y., he felt a unique affinity using the borderline-elfin Williams and deeply empathized using the songwriter's works about loneliness and longing. When he luckily finds out that Williams is still alive and carrying out, Kessler has mixed feelings: He's glad to determine his idol made it his crash-and-burn excess, but a little sad to determine the first kind celebrity now playing gigs in hotel lounges and lesser Las vegas venues. Williams, however, does not view it as sad whatsoever. There is a fascinating dynamic at play throughout "Still Alive," as Williams -- sometimes nicely, sometimes sternly -- frequently will not fulfill Kessler's anticipation, and progressively prods the filmmaker into creating a movie far diverse from the main one he set to make. In early stages, Williams convinces Kessler to become an onscreen participant, declaring that it might be difficult, otherwise silly, for him to make believe you be not aware from the camera following him. Later, when Kessler quizzes Williams concerning the low points of his '70s superstardom, Williams bristles in the critique implicit in Kessler's queries. "I seem like this can be a search which i haven't felt of your stuff before," Williams button snaps. "And That I can't stand it." It's greatly to Kessler's credit, and also to his film's benefit, he has incorporated this along with other moments that illustrate him as trying way too hard to repair his subject in certain preconceived scenario, and Williams as intuitively fighting off facile labeling. The 2 males don't really start to bond until they share a six-hour bus ride via a possibly terrorist-filled jungle throughout Williams' tour from the Philippines. However the give-and-take between subject and filmmaker always may be the pic's primary focus. Williams readily confesses to frequently as being a drug-addled show-off throughout his '70s heyday -- within the pic's uncomfortable sequences, he's noticeably pained because he unwillingly watches video of his spoiled-child arrogance while guest-hosting "The Merv Griffin Show" -- and that he will not make any excuses for making the most of all of the perks that included fame. "To become different is tough,Inch he states. "To become special is addicting." As Kessler themself observes, there is a tension produced throughout "Paul Williams: Still Alive" by opposite perspectives: As the director is searching back in a existence to create a documentary, Williams -- who's living that existence -- is searching forward. However the mixture of individuals viewpoints creates an engrossing and satisfying pic, one that will be loved even by those who have nothing you've seen prior heard about its subject. Tech values are acceptable.Camera (color, HD), Vern Nobles editor, David Zieff co-editor, Jonathan Del Gatto production designer, Perry Andelin Blake seem, Marcos Contreras. Examined at Toronto Film Festival (Real to Reel), Sept. 10, 2011. Running time: 84 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com