''Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show'' is an American documentary film that premiered on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

on October 21, 2017. Directed, written and produced by

Josh Greenbaum Josh Greenbaum is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has won an MTV Movie Award, CINE Golden Eagle and Emmy Award. He directed the feature documentary '' The Short Game'', winner of the SXSW Audience Award, which was acqui ...

, it explores the creation of '' The Dana Carvey Show'', how its creative team was assembled, and how the show ultimately came to be cancelled.

Production

The documentary features interviews with: Cast members

Louis C.K. Louis Alfred Székely (; born September 12, 1967), known professionally as Louis C.K. (), is an American stand-up comedian, screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker. C.K. won three Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and a ...

and

Charlie Kaufman Charles Stuart Kaufman (; born November 19, 1958) is an American filmmaker and novelist. He wrote the films ''Being John Malkovich'' (1999), ''Adaptation'' (2002), and ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (2004). He made his directorial de ...

only appear in archived footage.

Reception

''Too Funny To Fail'' was met with a positive response from critics upon its premiere. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.5 out of 10 based on 18 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Offering a detailed and highly entertaining oral history of the failed ''Dana Carvey Show'', ''Too Funny to Fail'' is too funny to be missed." In a positive review, '' The New York Times'' Margaret Lyons praised the film saying, "As sweetheart hagiographies go, the doc is joyous and funny. No one seems bitter or cynical, and the movie is less an excavation and more just a sublime collection of hilarious people speaking thoughtfully about silly clips from 20 years ago." In another favorable critique, '' NPR''s David Bianculli commended the film saying, "''Too Funny To Fail'' on its own terms is entertaining and enlightening from beginning to end." In a further approving analysis, '' The New Yorker''s Ian Crouch lauded the film's tone saying, "the documentary itself is a rare thing: a movie about comedy that is, itself, actually funny." In a more mixed assessment, '' Uproxx''s Steven Hyden criticized the structure of the film and its lack of interviews with key members of the show's crew saying, "''Too Funny To Fail'' is a little too straightforward, dispensing the story in the conventional journalistic style of a 60 Minutes report. And the failure to land interviews with

and

— the former was a pivotal guiding force, the latter was a nebbish outlier on the writing staff who later applied his meta genius to meta-genius films — makes the documentary feel a little incomplete."

References

External links

* * American documentary films Documentary films about television Films directed by Josh Greenbaum Hulu original films 2017 documentary films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films {{US-documentary-film-stub

Production

Reception

See also

References

External links