Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead

National Lampoon started in 1970 as an offshoot of a Harvard humour magazine and redirected American comedy inside a decade. Douglas Tirola's documentary tracks that expansion from the early issues out to records, radio shows and films like Animal House and Vacation. Two names sit at the centre: Doug Kenney, who produced at an alarming rate, and his far cooler partner Henry Beard. Kenney's story is the heaviest thing in the film. Tirola braids archival footage and the magazine's cover art with interviews including John Goodman, Chevy Chase, Kevin Bacon, Beverly D'Angelo, Christopher Guest and Tim Matheson, with Bill Murray, Gilda Radner and John Belushi appearing in archive. It premiered at Sundance on 25 January 2015. Who it's for: Anyone curious about how a comedy institution gets built and then comes apart, or looking for the roots of 1970s American comedy. Who it's not for: The film admires its subject and keeps little critical distance. The magazine's record on sexism and race gets less room than it warrants.