Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, Mike Myers’ directorial début (with co-director Beth Aala), is a loving tribute in the form of a show-biz documentary about uber-manager Shep Gordon. Gordon’s impressive roster of clients include acts as varied as Alice Cooper, Anne Murray, Teddy Pendergrass, Groucho Marx, and most every celebrity chef. His diverse assortment of industry friends all have terrific stories about him to tell on camera. While no great shakes as a documentary--it’s limited in scope and too rapidly cut--Myers is able to capture the various dichotomies contained within his subject. Gordon’s life is all about making people into celebrities, yet he personally believes fame is an unhealthy and even dangerous condition. This and the many other conflicting aspects of the man come across organically without anyone needing to spell them out to us, and they give the film a melancholy and perceptive edge that surrounds and contextualizes all the absorbing and lighthearted anecdotes. Gordon’s life, career, and personal philosophy reveal themselves to be both entertaining, relevant, and surprisingly moving, so that by the time the film is over it feels more profound than the simple love-letter it starts out to be.