Tig

Courtesy of Netflix

Some of the best documentaries simply tell obscure, inspiring stories about interesting people. The Maysles Brothers did it with "Grey Gardens," and Werner Herzog has made an entire career from it. In this same realm comes this new documentary from Netflix, about stand-up Tig Notaro. While she may not be a crackpot, or eccentric, we do get to delve into her psyche as she battles for her life, which is trying to kill her.

 In 2012, at the Largo Theater, Tig Notaro gave an impressively legendary set where she talked about her recent battle with an intestinal infection, breast cancer, a breakup, and the death of her mother, all at the urging of Ira Glass. After said set, she tried to pick up the pieces of her life by having a double mastectomy and trying for a child after fertility became a slim possibility. This film follows that battle, this urgent need for life to go on, even if it’s a tough triumph to live through it. Besides being a bittersweet film, Notaro shines as an ardent lover of comedy, willing to be awkward onstage if it means eventually finding her voice again. Notaro loves the use of pauses, inflections, and being a strange, awkward person onstage to get to the laughs.

 The third act of the film is possibly the saddest. Even with all the battles she has raged in, she still has this flicker of hope for a future that previously she wasn't allowed to wish for. Watching her try really hard to conceive a child and her wavering between abject hope and a tangible form of fear really makes you feel hollow and scared. Her cancer diagnosis can happen to any one of us. We could soon face mortality, familial death, or any number of problems in our life. Tig Notaro, for all the terribleness that was inflicted on her gave a once in a lifetime set that has led her on a much needed journey to the front of the pack. Hopefully there is much, much more to come from Notaro.