Brand: A Second Coming (15)
Directed by Ondi Timoner
4/5

Apart from devout followers and fans of his (brief) Hollywood stardom, comedian-actor-turned-aspirant messiah Russell Brand is probably best known to the general public for the notorious “Sachsgate” incident when he and equally ego-driven Jonathan Ross left obscene messages on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs.

Director Ondi Timoner includes potent footage of this infamy-catalysing incident in her riveting documentary charting the extraordinary life and career of the Essex-born stand-up star.

Its genesis is fascinating. It began as a six-year documentary called Happiness and, after other directors tried, Timoner took over with total creative control.

Her telling focus on Brand pays off handsomely.

This is a biopic that includes the good, the bad and the ugly rather than simply delivering a hagiography, making the saga of the former drug and sex addict who segued from stand-up star to re-Brand himself as a prospective star social commentator all the more riveting.

Vividly used archive footage features his early life in a broken home before seeking fame, achieving drug addiction and bulimia, being expelled from drama school and rehab and relapse.

He poses as The Elephant Man in a railway station, becomes genuinely involved in street protests and strips off on a police van before being brought down by the law.

Also, improbably, he addresses the United Nations in Austria and, in Kenya sees starving children foraging for food and, movingly, states: “This is hell”.

His brief marriage to Katy Perry is featured, along with snippets from Hollywood life spiced with frequently funny excerpts from his shows and the nazi joke that lost him the title of GQ man of the year in 2013.

Unmissable scenes see Brand addressing, patronising or sending up icons like David Lynch, Oliver Stone and Stephen Merchant whose onscreen title “co-creator of The Office” ensures this is one film Ricky Gervais will miss.

Timoner cleverly allows Brand’s own comments to deepen the story, ranging from: “History creates great men. Great men don’t create history,” “I’m a sex addict” and, responding to smugly superior Jeremy Paxman’s put-down that Brand is a narcissist, hits back with: “I’m your narcissist.”