Documentary follows a group of dedicated celebrity impersonators who band together to turn their passion into a decent living
ritish film-maker Tom Goudsmit has chosen a quintessentially American subject for his first feature-length documentary: people seeking to better their lots by impersonating, or just pretending to be, celebrities. In this case, all three of the subjects are young black men from the hinterland of central California who impersonate the latefrom different eras in the pop star’s life.
Working as a team, they travel to San Francisco and later Los Angeles to busk on the streets or wander around nightclubs, hoping to pick up tips. It’s a tough way to earn a meagre income, and it looks like the three of them sleep in a car overnight when they make it to LA. As well as doing their choreographed dance-and-patter shtick on the streets of Hollywood near Jackson’s Walk of Fame star, they seek out an agent – any kind of agent – to help them take the act to the next level.
The film never explains exactly when it was shot, but mini-montages of the media reaction to the documentary Leaving Neverland, in which two men say they are survivors of sexual abuse meted out by Jackson, suggest this was made sometime around 2019.
By adhering to a stand-back-and-watch approach, Goudsmit lets the comedy of the situation bubble naturally to the surface; in one scene, for example, Chavail, bless his cotton socks, explains how he’s considering careers as “a preacher, foot therapist, porn star, actor, salesman of some sort, host or nude model” should the Michael Jackson impersonating not work out. This being 21st-century California, it’s that third option that looks most likely by the end of the film.
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