After watching the first several minutes of Constance Marksâ documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteerâs Journey, I realized I could watch an entire movie of just Elmo giving people hugs. But the heartwarming story of Elmoâs puppeteer Kevin Clash is also good. The movie doesnât have much in the way of conflict, but it provides a great narrative of a man who pursued his life-long dream as well as a fascinating look inside the world of puppetry. While younger viewers may be a bit disappointed that Elmo isnât the dominate figure in the movie, all audiences will be won over by Clash and how he made his dream come true.Everyone knows and loves the popular Seasme Street character Elmo, but few are aware of his puppeteer, Kevin Clash. The documentary tells how Clash grew from humble origins in Baltimore and loved the escapism that shows like Captain Kangaroo and Sesame Street provided. He was so taken by puppets that he decided to turn his fatherâs fur coat into one. To his parentsâ eternal credit, they only scolded him for not asking permission first. The movie then follows Clashâs career doing puppet shows for local kids, his introduction and tutoring under Jim Hensonâs chief muppet engineer, landing jobs on two kids TV shows, working on Hensonâs Labyrinth, and finally taking over the role of Elmo.Stories tend to run on conflict, but they donât always have to. Being Elmo wouldnât be any more rewarding if it turned out that Clash had beaten drug addiction or had some other demon in his past. Clashâs tale appeals to our desire to see through-lines in an individualâs life. When post people are expected to have multiple careers over the course of their lifetime, itâs uplifting to see someone who knew what he wanted to do when he was a kid and found a way to do it. So many of us watched and loved Seasme Street but Clash never âgrew out of itâ. He found not only the world Sesame Street magical, but the show made him curious about the art of puppetry.The film does a great job of showing that puppetry is much harder than it looks. Marks follows Clash to France where heâs teaching puppeteers how to handle the muppets. Things you would never think to consider, like âWhatâs the best way for Elmo to scratch his headâ or âHow should the mouth move when the muppet speaks,â turn out to be far more complex than previous thought. Audiences who see this film will leave with not only an appreciation of Clash but for the amount of work puppetry requires.Being Elmo isnât a complex movie. Itâs not even a visually consistent movie as the interviews with Clash, which were done over a six year span, sometimes have him looking directly into the camera to answer a question and sometimes looking at the off-screen interviewer. But that doesnât matter because it excels at what it sets out to do: tell a real-life inspirational story about the man behind one of the most beloved characters in the world. The result is the cinematic equivalent of a great big hug.Rating: BFor all of our coverage of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, click here. Also, here are links to all of my Sundance reviews so far:
- Benavides Born
- Bobby Fischer Against the World
- Cormanâs World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel
- The Details
- Higher Ground
- Hobo with a Shotgun
- Homework
- The Interrupters
- The Lie
- Like Crazy
- Magic Trip
- Martha Marcy May Marlene
- The Music Never Stopped
- My Idiot Brother
- Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times
- Project Nim
- Reagan
- Red State
- Salvation Boulevard
- Submarine
- These Amazing Shadows
- Tyrannosaur
- Win Win