Love, Gilda

As funny, tender, and ultimately heartbreaking as its subject, this earnest documentary traces a life well lived, if sadly cut short. Filmmaker Lisa D'Apolito must have been excited to find that Radner kept a lifelong diary and that her family used a film camera to record young Gilda's antics. Scenes in which the bright-eyed young girl hams it up in her backyard make it clear that Radner had a comedic fire in her belly from an early age. And, of course, there's plenty of footage from Radner's SNL years, which aptly illustrate both her comic timing and the impact she made in a traditionally male field at a particularly hot moment for American feminism. 

One of the strongest points that Love, Gilda makes is how powerful Radner's representation was for today's female comedy stars. "I basically stole all my characters from Gilda," says Poehler. And "Sometimes I wonder if it's why I'm so physical because I just grew up watching her so intensely," says McCarthy. Even more movingly, viewers learn that Radner was hospitalized for an (unspecified) eating disorder, struggled with feelings of worthlessness, and that she and Gene Wilder fell madly in love almost immediately upon meeting and stayed that way through the end of her life. There are few surprises in this biography for Radner's fans. But for them, getting to spend a few more moments with this luminous, enchanting comic will be enough.