Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead

This looks phenomenal: a feature-length documentary about the origin of seminal satirical magazine The National Lampoon, which changed the way America thought about humor in the 1970s and 1980s. I was a bit too young to enjoy (or understand) The Lampoon in its heyday, but its effects on the culture at large were not difficult to grasp: the founding cast of “Saturday Night Live” was built on Lampoon veterans, and it influenced at least two generations of culture makers. I haven’t seen this documentary yet, but as I understand it, it gives Lampoon’s key art director Michael Gross his due, too. Gross was responsible for the magazine’s signature, Madison-avenue style aesthetic; often the magazine looked as professional as the straight culture it was satirizing, which made it even more effective.

The movie is out in theaters in late September. Read a review of the “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead” at hollywoodreporter.com.

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