Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
Dir: Richard Pryor
1986
****
Richard Pryor's only directional venture; 1986's Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling is a devastatingly poignant exercise in self analysis. It's classed as semi-autobiographical but a few name changes and a few characters aside, it's basically Pryor's life laid bare with him as narrator. It's the sort of thing that rarely ever works but Pryor stays true to the only person that counts, himself, so it works perfectly and he tells a story only he can tell. It's never over the top and the film is never manipulative, Pryor doesn't play for the audiences affection, instead he simply highlights how someone can go from one bad situation to another and that it is rarely anyone else's fault. Richard Pryor was always quite open about his life in his live shows, this played out for laughs to great effect. Here, everything is mostly serious, almost to the point that this is purely for his own benefit, a therapy. Pryor has two roles in the film, firstly as himself and secondly as his own conscious (or spirit). He explores his demons, his regrets and his faults for all to see. I'm guessing he did this for himself and also because around the time it was all he was ever asked, making Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling must have been a huge relief to him, it's so unfortunate that things never really picked up afterwards and that he was soon to be struck down with the multiple sclerosis that would go on to essentially kill both him and his career in film. It's such an achievement to have both stared and directed such a film and to have made something so personal so open to everyone to understand and enjoy. A great film and a must for fans of the great comedian.