Movie of the Week: Tig

Alexa: Sometimes we need comedy to escape and sometimes we need comedy to cope with life, both its hardships and its everyday nuances. The latter is Tig Notaro’s bread and butter, and Netflix’s sublime documentary about her perfectly captures who she is. “Tig” chronicles Notaro’s return to comedy after battling breast cancer, her subsequent struggle to get pregnant and the love story between her and now-wife Stephanie Allynne. If you haven’t listened to her iconic show at Largo, which she performed shortly after her mother’s death and just days after her cancer diagnosis, I highly recommend doing so before watching the documentary. I’ve admired her ever since I first heard it, but after watching “Tig,” I feel like I know her. I laughed and cried with her throughout the movie, which is both heartbreaking and tremendously funny. But above all it captures what an incredible spirit this woman has, to live so fully after experiencing such tragedy, and to refuse to let it define her.

Joel: I know that this is supposed to be a review about the movie, and it will be, but first I have to take a moment to discuss Tig Notaro’s Live (pronounced as in “to live”) the standup set that Tig performed at Largo. This standup set, if you have not yet heard it, is simply one of the best pieces of standup that you can hear. It’s raw, emotional, heartbreaking, and tough, but it’s also one of the funniest things you can hear. It may be the strongest argument out there for considering standup to be an art form. You can feel Tig working her way through her pain in front of this crowd. It’s a situation that walks a very thin tightrope between awkward and unpleasant, and just plain not funny, but Tig maneuvers masterfully through the set. Whatever scale you want to rate stand up on, Tig Notaro’s Live should get top marks. Thumbs up. Five Stars. A+.
Which brings me to the Netflix documentary. Tig is based around that standup set, and the year or so that follows, as Notaro navigates through struggles with her cancer, her relationship, trying to have a child, all while dealing with the sudden viral fame that came with her sharing her pain with the world. The documentary is well made and tells a compelling and sweet story, but it feels, in some ways, incomplete without having heard the Live set. It’s almost as if this documentary serves as a special feature for the standup. It adds to and expands upon the picture that is painted with the standup set, but it isn’t great at standing alone. There are large segments of the show at Largo in the documentary to help steer and guide the movie, but the two compliment each other so well, my advice is to try and make sure you find the time to experience them both.

Chris: The Tig Notaro story is so unbelievable that if you pitched it to a hollywood exec, you would get laughed out of the building because her story is so messed up at times that it feels like it could never possibly be real. However it is real and thankfully has a happy ending but professionally and personally for Tig. I don't want to be the third person on this article to wax poetic about her Live standup set but it is something incredible to listen to and has broadened the possibilities for stand-up acts to explore personal topics that almost going into the performance piece category while maintaining a comedic base. While you're on Netflix, also watch Neal Brennan's stand-up special called "3 Mics," it's both incredibly hilarious while being personal and moving and it's the kind of stand-up special that audiences probably wouldn't be open to experience if Tig's Live hadn't been released beforehand. This documentary, as Joel said, is an amazing companion piece to the Live special that gives the audience a few more specifics but since it's shorter than our usual Movie of the Week, go listen to Live.