At age 89, Elaine Stritch remains an indomitable force – a broadway legend and titan of her own time. In Chiemi Karasawa’s documentary “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me,” she follows the feisty, defiant Stritch as the actress faces questions of mortality and her own legacy.
Occasionally bespectacled in giant horn-rimmed glasses, Strich has seen quite a lot of old show business friends pass. She’s managed to retain a lavish room in The Hotel Carlyle, but she’s become a living ornament, a walking statue of a New York City stalwart and makes her presence known wherever she may be. Karasawa’s documentary manages to capture Stritch performing everywhere whether she’s taking a walk in Central Park with humongous fur coats or practicing for her one-woman show.
While Strich remains an interesting, often overly obliging subject to capture, the fly-on-the-wall aesthetics don’t lead to any other deeper insight behind what makes her such an explosively flamboyant personality.
Here and there, in “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me,” Karasawa gets glimpses of those vulnerable moments where Stritch feels the crushing weight of age as wells as years of experience as a habitual smoker and enjoyer of casual drinks. Her longevity in both the theater arena and in her own life remains an impressive feat.
The film features an array of talking heads from Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey of “30 Rock” to John Turturro (“Fading Gigolo”) who wax poetic about Elaine’s towering status as an icon. But the most interesting, comes from the late and great James Gandolfini (“Enough Said”) who says, “If we both met when I was 35, I would have no doubt that we would have a torrid love affair which would’ve ended very badly.” Gandolfini then offers a coy smirk.
However, Elaine Stritch, both the performer and the person, make for excellent company during the 80-minute run time.
