Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, 2024.

Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui.
Featuring Christopher Reeve, Dana Reeve, Alexandra Reeve Givens, Matthew Reeve, Will Reeve, Gae Sexton, Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, Whoopi Goldberg, John Kerry, Brooke Ellison, Steven Kirshblum, Richard Donner, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Bill Clinton, Johnny Carson, Jane Seymour, Barack Obama, and Alexandra Reeve Givens.

SYNOPSIS:

Reeve’s rise to becoming a film star, follows with a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After which, he became an activist for spinal cord injury treatments and disability rights.

Even though it is close to 50 years since the release of Superman: The Movie, it is still hard to separate Christopher Reeve from his iconic role as the Man of Steel. He embodied everything great about the character, exemplifying Superman’s compassion, kindness and heroism onscreen while playing a perfect dual performance as the dorky Clark Kent. However, Reeve became a real life superman after his tragic horse accident which left him paralyzed, beginning a journey as an advocate for disabled people and working tirelessly to improve their standard of living. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story explores his life before and after the accident, how it shaped him and cemented his legacy on and off the screen.

The documentary’s non-linear style jumps between points at the start of Reeve’s career and his life after the accident, but this helps explore several aspects of his life and character. From his training at Juilliard to his explosive popularity in the aftermath of Superman‘s release, you get a true sense of Reeve’s work ethic, outlook on life and his positivity. The jumps between timeframes serves to heighten both the tragedy of his accident and his strength of spirit to persevere and help others like him.

The doc also sees many friends and family give their perspective on Reeve, from his children Matthew, Alexandra and Will and archival footage of his wife Dana – complete with years of family videos – along with his former partner Gae Exton, close friends Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Daniels, Whoopi Goldberg and many people he worked with or helped through The Christopher Reeve Foundation (later renamed after Christopher and Dana) with archival footage of Superman director Richard Donner and Reeve’s very close friend Robin Williams, himself deceased after a battle with depression. All these voices offer a very personal look into his life and struggle and how inspiring he could be.

While Superman is Reeve’s most well known role, the film does go into his roles from the stage and other films or TV, even going into his post-Superman IV career where he was not getting quite as many offers as he previously was. Even still, though, his career was full of diverse roles where he never allowed himself to be typecast. His directing work is also given focus, especially because his shift to directing came after his accident which, according to the people who knew him, only heightened his determination to live life to the fullest.

As for his paralysis, the film does not shy away from the difficulties he and his family faced including his massive depression in the months after his accident. It is a testament to Reeve’s spirit and determination of how much he accomplished in his life after the accident, not just through his continued film work but the creation of his foundation and campaigning for better quality of life for disabled peoples and research into their conditions. To the film’s credit, it does explore some of the controversy Reeve stirred with the latter as he strove for a ‘cure’ to paralysis and made it a mission to walk again, though that didn’t take away from everything else he and Dana set out to achieve.

On that note, while the doc is called The Christopher Reeve Story it would be incomplete without his massive medical and personal support group, both of which Dana Reeve played a huge part in. The film examines her just as much as it does Christopher from her commitment to stay with him all throughout his ordeal to championing alongside him and after his death. Their connection is in many ways the heart of the film and given proper focus, adding another tragic twist as Dana, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with cancer and passed away just two years after Reeve died.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story very much explores how Reeve came to be the embodiment of Superman’s perseverance and strength in and out of his wheelchair. You don’t have to be a Superman fan to find this an incredibly moving documentary that tugs at the heartstrings while giving depth to his life, character, struggles, family and friendships and showing anyone can follow his example.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.

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When Ariana Grande appeared as the musical guest on a March episode of “Saturday Night Live,” it wasn’t hard to predict (and we did) that she’d be back in the fall to promote the November release of her movie “Wicked.” But instead of doing double-duty as host and musical act like Bad Bunny did last season, Grande insisted in her opening monologue (in song) that she’s planned to keep it low key.

Thank goodness she was joking.

After accurately imitating the singing voices of Britney Spears, Miley Cryus and Gwen Stefani in the monologue, Grande told Yang, dressed in a pink “Wicked”-inspired gown, that their sketch about the movie was cut. Then she kick-lined with dancers and promised not to duet with Nicks (“Worth a shot!”).

Grande, who could be up for some Grammy nominations soon, may not have been the musical guest, but she had plenty of songs to show off her powerful voice on the show. In addition, her sketches played to her strengths as a performer with crack comedic timing, who turns out to be as talented a mimic as the show’s own cast members.

The guest host expertly spoofed Celine Dion’s recent NFL appearance with a UFC-themed version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” and in a sketch that required Grande to do an impression of Jennifer Coolidge in a Maybelline commercial opposite current “SNL” impressionist Chloe Fineman and “SNL” legend Dana Carvey doing their own Coolidge takes, the pop star’s sounded most like “The White Lotus” Emmy winner.

Grande also sang — in a very, very high voice — as a castrated boy in the Italian renaissance whose parents (Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg) explain the concept of “Castrato.” In a pre-taped video, she performed a song about the smells of her best friend’s house (it takes a dark turn). And in a sketch about a competitive mom meeting her son’s boyfriend for the first time, she fought with, and kissed, fellow “Wicked” cast member Bowen Yang. She also played a double-crossing hotel detective inspector as well as a member of a wedding party singing purposefully off-key lyrics, inspired by “Espresso,” to expose bad behavior at the bachelorette party.

The guest host broke character a few times, but she always recovered quickly and turned in a stellar performance on an episode that started five minutes late due to college football. Musical guest Stevie Nicks performed her new pro-abortion rights anthem “The Lighthouse” and “Edge of Seventeen.” For the third week in a row, no Please Don’t Destroy video, but the boys can be seen in a recent Instagram video shot at the “SNL” offices and are apparently working on an ad for Allstate.

“SNL” knows when it’s struck gold, as it did with the season premiere’s stacked cold open featuring Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris and Dana Carvey as President Biden, which it followed by bringing the same guest stars back for the vice presidential debate. This week, the show reverted to a fantasy episode of “Family Feud” aired by CNN with the Democrats facing off against the Republicans and Steve Harvey (Kenan Thompson) hosting the “Feud.”

Kamala referenced her busy week of media appearances — she says she went on Howard Stern’s show to appeal to horny cab drivers — former President Trump (James Austin Johnson) insisted immigrants are eating Moo Deng and JD Vance (Yang) accused Democrats of turning The Joker “into a gay guy obsessed with Lady Gaga.”

The format was fun, but the comedic beats were almost identical to the previous two cold opens, with a confused Biden, the bombastic dad-energy of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan) and second gentleman Doug Emhoff (Samberg). The only new wrinkle was including Mikey Day as Donald Trump, Jr., who laments about Vance, “It’s almost like my dad picked me to be vice president…. But he didn’t.”

The impressions were still solid, but triple dipping bled a lot of the humor from the piece.

In Grande’s monologue she pointed out that the last time she hosted in 2016, the country was “Right on the verge of electing our first female president, so I guess… second time’s the charm.”

Best sketch of the night: Celine Dion makes broken bones sound beautiful

Following Celine Dion’s strange surprise appearance in an NFL promo, Grande imitated the singer delivering a similar message — this time for the even more brutal sport of UFC. With lyrics including, “There was breaking of bones / and there’s knees to the balls,” this version of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” celebrated the violence of UFC, from cauliflower ears to 300-pound Bosnian athletes vomiting up their own teeth. Grande’s Celine Dion promised to see you in The Octagon.

Also good: Do you like Jennifer Coolidge? How about three of her?

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As mentioned above, Grande aced her Jennifer Coolidge Academy of Jennifer Coolidge Impressions entry exam in a mirror sketch with Fineman, who has played the actress before on the show. The two free associated things to talk about on a date, such as lemons, until they were joined by Carvey as their mirror moved to reveal a third Coolidge. The only surprise was that it was Carvey seated there instead of the real Coolidge herself.

‘Weekend Update’ winner: Amazon employee Monica is a bit overworked

James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman played the quarreling brothers from Oasis, Noel and Liam Gallagher, but Ego Nwodim hit harder as Monica, an overworked Amazon employee still recovering from the company’s recent two-day sales event. Monica has worked eight days in a row — so long she had to make up a whole new day of the week, “Fluesday.” Monica discussed hooking up with a drone at work and at one point fell asleep with her eyes open. “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che pointed out that the conditions seem inhumane. But when asked whether he’d stop ordering stuff from Amazon, he went silent. Relatable!