This is Billy Crystal’s directorial debut and labor of love. Audiences expected it to be funny, and it is side-splitting in parts; but like most Jewish lives it is also filled with a kind of bittersweet schmaltz—moments that achieve the pathos Crystal wanted.

In his bravura performance, Crystal plays Buddy Young, Jr., a typical Borscht-belt Jewish comedian in the mold of Alan King or Milton Berle. Like all of them, Buddy gets laughs by turning his Jewish upbringing into absurdist shtick. Unlike Crystal himself, Buddy has a Don Rickles attack-dog persona and is great at alienating everyone, including his brother Stan (David Paymer, nominated for an Oscar for this performance)
who buries his own life and becomes Buddy’s thankless, longsuffering

Buddy is the Jake La Motta of stand-up, and Crystal explicitly patterns the film after Raging Bull. But Jewish.

And seriously, folks: it’s just great.