Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind

He will be deeply missed. Millions of souls were touched and entertained by him. He was like a thunder on stage, saying joke after joke in a flawless way. Rest in peace.

It's an HBO documentary special on late great comedian Robin Williams. It tackles his humor, his family, his addictions, and his sobriety. It doesn't shy away from the addictions but his comedy does lighten the hit. It isn't the darkness of reality but it is how he dealt with it. The most fascinating is after Awakenings when he starts diving into mental illness. No one can truly get inside his manic mind but it gives us a glimpse. As a bio, it hits all the landmarks. It isn't going inside his mind as advertised. It is a witness to his journey and that is the best that one can hope for. One thing is for sure. No one can ever really play him in a biopic. Not only is his an original. No one can hope to copy him.

I watch this documentary with a heavy heart. You never get to see the struggles that some actors have had to go until they retire or die. Watching this shortly after he would have celebrated his 67th birthday, it is difficult to put all that content and that much energy in an HBO special in just under 2 hours, but they manage to do so. When you watch this, it will leave you nothing short of wanting to binge watch everything Robin Williams has touched. Growing up to most of his movies, in the peak of his time, brings me back to my childhood. I can't remember the amount of times I've seen Mrs. Doubtfire, Aladdin, Good Will Hunting, and probably my favourite, Patch Adams, which I feel is borderline autobiographical, minus the medical aspect. I was really happy being able to see my childhood friend again and I know you will be too. I strongly recommend you watch this if you ever loved Robin Williams. You won't be disappointed.

You'll laugh and you'll cry. Such a Powerful documentary. Many people in the entertainment industry have come and gone but this is by far the Toughest. :(

"Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind" (2018 release - 117 min.) is a documentary about the life and times of comedian Robin Williams. As the documentary opens, we see robin improvise widely in an interview, while impressing a theater crowd at the same time. "Are you thinking faster than us?" asks the interviewer? Robin grins broadly. We then go back in time to his youth and high school days, and quickly we find ourselves in "Edinburgh, 1971", where he is performing "The Taming of the Shrew"... At this point we are a good 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest bio-documentary from director Marina Zenovich, who previously has brought us documentaries about, among others, Richard Pryor and Roman Polanski. Here she tackles the ups and downs in Robin Williams' life and career. The bet moments come in the movie's first half, where we get clips, never seen before, of Robin's brilliant stand-up comedy. A slew of talking heads bring their perspective on it all, including Billy Crystal, "Mork & Mindy" co-star Pam Dawber, and, later on, Zak Williams, Robin's oldest son, now in his mid-30s. "Seeing him sharing with others was hard", admits Zak, as he rues Robin's many absences during Zak's childhood. But the bottom line was that Robin enjoyed life on stage: "On stage he was comfortable and in charge, in real life he was not", comments someone and that just about sums it up.

"Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind" premiered at this year's Sundance film festival to good acclaim, and then went straight to HBO, which is where I caught it on HBO On Demand recently. The documentary is well made, no doubt. The last half hour, though, is pretty tough to watch, for obvious reasons. If you are a fan of Robin Williams, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.