Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A look at the history of the American comedy publication and production company, National Lampoon, from its beginning in the 1970s to 2010, featuring rare and never before seen footage, this is the mind boggling story of The National Lampoon from its subversive and electrifying beginnings, to rebirth as an unlikely Hollywood heavyweight, and beyond. A humour empire like no other, the impact of the magazines irreverent, often shocking, sensibility was nothing short of seismic: this is an institution whose (drunk stoned brilliant) alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture. Both insanely great and breathtakingly innovative, The National Lampoon created the foundation of modern comic sensibility by setting the bar in comedy impossibly high.
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead is a solid if conventional music-doc-style documentary about the National Lampoon's wild cultural history. The story itself is inherently fascinating — the rise and fall of a genuine comedy institution — and the talking-head format delivers enough archival gold and insider anecdotes to keep it engaging (Plot: 3). As a documentary, 'acting' refers to the on-camera presence of interview subjects, who are largely enthusiastic but unpolished in front of the camera, without standout moments (Acting: 2). The cinematography is functional — standard doc intercuts of archive footage, magazine covers, and talking heads, competently assembled but not visually distinctive (Cinematography: 2). The subject matter gives it some Novelty — the National Lampoon story is underexplored on film and genuinely singular in American comedy history — but the documentary's approach is fairly by-the-numbers for the genre (Novelty: 3). The ending follows the inevitable decline narrative without offering much reflection or resonance beyond a surface-level coda on the brand's fading legacy (Ending: 2).