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The Independent Critic

Conceived/Directed by
Jason Kovacsev, Matt Mamula
Featuring
You'll just have to see for yourself. Really.
Running Time
14:30
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 "Just About Famous" Review 
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Who do you look like? Have you ever had the fortune, or misfortune, of being mistaken for someone famous? I can still remember as a teenager being mistaken for some nerdy kid from a Triscuit commercial. The person SWORE I was a dead ringer for the kid. Weird. As an adult, I had a co-worker who referred to me as "Chucky"... Yeah, that psycho doll from the Child's Play movies. I'm assuming it was because I'm short, homely and bordering on psycho.

Co-directed by Jason Kovacsev and Matt Mamula, Just About Famous is a nearly 15-minute short doc about celebrity tribute artists - a few of those people who've had the good fortune (or bad misfortune?) to closely resemble some of the world's most popular, powerful and talented people and who can back up their uncanny resemblance with enough talent to make you believe you just might be seeing the real thing.

Elvis? Of course he's here.

Bill Clinton? Obviously. George W. Bush? Oh yeah.

There's everyone here from Robert DeNiro to Robin Williams, Oprah Winfrey to Whoopi Goldberg, Dame Edna to Britney Spears and the list goes on and on. They're gathering at the annual Sunburst Convention in Orlando, Florida for what looks like a hilarious cross between high school reunion, Love Boat cruise and a Las Vegas style Field of Dreams.

Just About Famous marvelous, because Mamula and Kovacsev tap into the joyous irreverence of the entire event without ever losing control of the film. While we don't particularly learn a tremendous amount about the human beings behind the "personalities," Just About Famous perfectly realizes these rather wondrous human beings with both humor and humanity.

What's truly amazing abou t Just About Famous is just how much the film actually makes you smile and laugh, not at these people or characters but with them. The majority of these people seem to truly love this way of life, a way for them to make people smile and add a little bit of joy to the world. While there are a tremendous amount of laughs in the film, the filmmakers never lose sight of how much time, energy and hard work these tribute artists put into their characters, their costumes and creating a vivid, realistic experience for all who experience them.

Humor and heart intertwine with intelligence and humanity to serve up an entertaining and well constructed short doc that could easily lend itself to feature-length should the filmmakers opt to flesh out this material even further. Tech credits are solid across the board, but rightfully so the filmmakers turn Just About Famous into a humorous tribute to those who are, indeed, just about famous.