Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2017)

Very well executed

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Even if you're not old enough to have known/seen Reynolds & or Fisher in film or media this story is honestly fascinating & instructive in so many ways. (a.) Aging gets to us all and there are ways to keep your wit and honesty about it all alive & kicking. (b.) Fanaticism (whether in sport, music, film, politics (think Trump - gawd)) has it's strange negatives, but also has some positives. (c.) Wealth isolates from reality, but subsistence poverty has it's own different reality (and fanaticism - think religion). (d.) Mental issues and/or addictions knows no boundaries. (e.) How one's life becomes perverted/distorted when everyone's your servant or wants to use you. Kudos to those who documented what appears to be an honest insight into those lives. A script like ending to their life stories. Would liked to have subtitles to fully capture all that was said. Interestingly as I write this the BBC news just released more information on Carrie (6/17/17).

My parents and myself watched this after a few weeks when both women died. It is just so sad that Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds died a day of one another. Some people say its creepy but it seems like the way it was. Carrie didn't look good at all, she looked as if she was Debbie Reynold's mother since Debbie Reynolds still looks like she was in her late 50's than being in her 80's. The drugs really did make her look old and I'm not saying this to criticize her because shes a legend, however I have to admit, you do see the side effects. She did look beautiful from when she was Princess Leia to the late 90s. It didn't help when her parents divorced and her father ran off with Elizabeth Taylor. Even worse, he became a druggie and left his children to try out his weed for themselves when they were teenagers.At least Debbie Reynolds really tried her best to support her kids and the fact they became a success like her, its wonderful! I was shocked during the documentary that she badly bruised her face from a fall. Poor thing, it was awful to hear about that! I am quite sad writing down this review because both women were part of my childhood and I thank them for entertaining all generations over the years. RIP Princess Leia and Kathy Selden <3

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2016)*** 1/2 (out of 4) It's funny how events that happen before a movie's release can change the way you view it. A great example is THE CROW where Brandon Lee was killed during the production and this left a rather morbid atmosphere over an already dark movie. When you view BRIGHT LIGHTS, the documentary about the relationship between Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Carrie Fisher, you can't help but know the tragic turn of events that happened before this aired on HBO. It's even more uncanny when one of the earliest moments in the film has Carrie asking her mom about her will.With that said, this is an extremely good and very entertaining documentary that traces both ladies rise in Hollywood. We learn about Reynolds career, how she got involved in Eddie Fisher, the birth of their two children and of course what followed. With Fisher we learn about her relationship with her parents, her rise in STAR WARS and of course the drug addiction and depression. From here we also get to meet Todd Fisher and get some wonderful moments with him and, in one of the film's highlights, his poster collection, which he uses to tell his life story.BRIGHT LIGHTS is certainly a film that fans of the there are going to enjoy as there are some terrific moments captured. There are some great stories told as well as quite a bit of archival footage showing Carrie and Todd when they were children. We also get to see inside the homes of the three, which is a great movie all by itself. Reynolds movie memorabilia collection is also looked at and discussed and we also get some footage of some of her final moments on a stage.With that said, there's no question that there's a lingering sadness that surrounds the film. There are some uncanny moments that will certainly make you think to the events that happened towards the end of Carrie and Debbie's lives. In a weird way, what happened to Debbie is a lot more understandable once you see this film and see how close the two of them were.

As some other critics have noted, it's sort of like Grey Gardens lite, but I have to wonder if any/everyone who wrote about this following it's New York Film Festival premiere (or any other fest screenings) have to revisit their opinions following the final sucker-punch celebrity deaths of Fisher followed by Reynolds in 2016. I'm of two minds on this: yes, there may not be too much different in seeing these natural-born-entertainer-Characters (though Reynolds more-so, they can't seem to help breaking out into song, and usually they both know the words), and no, there is a sadder pall on everything knowing they're gone and, as the Rolling Stones sang, 'This could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don't know,' and we do know for Reynolds it is and for Fisher (who mentions she's off to shoot Force Awakens and is shooting it during the filming of the doc) it is too.In a way though it's about a mother and daughter, the through-line is really about Reynolds and her long, winding goodbye to entertainment; she does a concert to a large sports-style auditorium, and while she's not singing badly one can see the lights are trying to hide that the auditorium is not full and how she can barely get down the stairs from the stage. But she can't stop/won't stop, so who knows if her "final" show in Las Vegas, where she requests Carrie to come on stage to sing (with, as Carrie shows, awkwardly scripted banter for them to do). The question through much of what is a scattered-in-structure document of two people at a particular time looking back at things is: how do you ever end being "you", whether that's Debbie Reynolds or Carrie Fisher? There are some scenes that are extraneous, if I can step back and look at it critically as a documentary. Even at 93 minutes it may be too long. But you can't escape how meaningful this is now seeing it with the context of knowing this is a tribute to these wonderful people as much as it's a document of their relationship. It's both, really, and you know for all the pain that they've caused each other, with Postcards from the Edge as a prime example of their contentious moments, there's real love and friendship. Not to mention there's brother/son Todd Fisher, the brother who may be *weirder* in some ways (with his movie posters chronicling how his parents started out and then came together and split apart, and his Knight Rider car which is simply WTF), on the sidelines, part of it but too "normal" as a nice little boy who grew up around all this.So if you like or even have some passing admiration for Reynolds, who seems like a born entertainer but really did have to work at it (being naturally beautiful helped too, but being molded by the MGM studio system was the key - as someone here says, maybe Carrie, she couldn't help but be 'on' all the time), and Fisher, who struggled for years with bi-polar disorder and a host of other addictions and ailments to still be around for her, and the mother for her daughter. Along the way there are nice 'cameos' from Griffin Dunne (who introduces himself at the foot of Fisher's stairs yelling, "hey, f***face" with affection), and Barbara Streisand on the TV.PS: No, really, a Knight Rider car? Really? PPS: The footage of Fisher at a convention doesn't quite sync up to what she wrote about in her book, The Princess Diarist, but why carp?