Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

USA – 2010 – 88 MIN – COLOUR - FEATURE - IN ENGLISH
A FILM BY RODMAN FLENDER

After a much-publicized departure from hosting NBC’s Tonight Show — and the severing of a 22-year relationship with the network — O’Brien hit the road with a 32-city music-and-comedy show to exercise his performing chops and exorcise a few demons. The “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” tour was O’Brien’s answer to a contractual stipulation that banned his appearance on television, radio and the Internet for six months following his last show.  

Filmmaker Rodman Flender’s resulting documentary, CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP, is an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “half-assed show” (his words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base.  

At times angry, mostly hilarious, O’Brien works out his feelings about the very-public separation with comedy and rockabilly music, engaging in bits with on-stage guests such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jim Carrey, duetting with Jack White and sweating out manic Elvis Presley covers with his band and back-up singers. 

We see a comic who does not stop — performing, singing, pushing his staff and himself. Did Conan O’Brien hit the road to give something back to his loyal fans, or did he travel across the continent, stopping at cities large (New York, Las Vegas) and remote (Enoch, Alberta) to fill a void within himself?

An unflinching view of the real Conan O'Brien (Interview)
- METRO

"Unlike Charlie Sheen, O’Brien knows when to check his rage, and he doesn’t just wing his live show. He’s an accomplished guitar player and not-bad singer — as fans of his show already know — and he and the gang labour to deliver a concert that’s worth watching, and also paying for."
- THE TORONTO STAR

"O’Brien had a huge reservoir of public goodwill after the way NBC (and Jay Leno) treated him, and he comes nowhere near depleting it here. Even at his grumpiest and most politically incorrect, the man is funny. “It’s almost over,” someone tells him as the tour winds down. O’Brien snaps back: “That’s what they said to Anne Frank.”"
- THE NATIONAL POST

Interview with Rodman Flender
- NOW MAGAZINE

"By the time O’Brien stops in at Harvard for his 25-year class reunion – where he kills time before a talent show with an impromptu green-room jam session – you’ll be as breathless and excited as he is to see what happens next."
- NOW MAGAZINE

"It’s a mad, mad Conan world for Rodman Flender"
- THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT

"CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP takes a look at the drama behind being funny"
- THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT

"Documentary captures a tireless, cranky star in endless pursuit of applause."
- OTTAWA CITIZEN

"O’Brien may have lost his dream job but his fans have finally been offered a chance to glimpse the man behind the cartoonish television personality."
- WE VANCOUVER

"Documentary explores the post-NBC, pre-TBS chapter of Conan O’Brien’s career"
- FFWD WEEKLY

"Fans see a darker side of Conan in new documentary"
- CTV NEWS

"It’s no act. Conan O’Brien truly can’t stop."
- MONTREAL GAZETTE

"For you fans who can't get enough of Conan O'Brien on his late-night TBS show, and who are game to revisit the tumultuous time when NBC's squeeze play put him out of a job while reinstating Jay Leno at "The Tonight Show," a new documentary film should be right up your alley."
- YAHOO NEWS

"...a must see, can’t miss movie"
- THE MANITOBAN

"...a greatly humanizing portrait of someone that many fans would consider to be almost larger than life. It’s the kind of tour film that one rarely sees on screen anymore, and in that respect, CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP is quite admirable."
- CRITICIZE THIS!

"When Jay Leno decided to repossess The Tonight Show after tanking in prime time, Conan O’Brien found himself on a forced vacation from broadcast media. So he went on a multi-city tour of live performances, and director Rodman Flender (Leprechaun 2) tagged along for the ride."
- NOW MAGAZINE

"Conan O’Brien teasing with one-night stand"
- IN MOVIES

"The lost six months in which Conan O’Brien disappeared from the broadcast realm are detailed in a film that will play in Winnipeg for one night only next month."
- WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

"For long time fans of CoCo this film is a must see. Watching Conan in his truest raw form uncensored by television is the funniest I've ever seen him. Even casual fans and people only mildly familiar with him should be able to enjoy the ride just as much if not more. Unlike most documentaries, it never slows down or gets boring, the pace is fast moving but covers everything it set out to do. Most importantly giving the fans what they want, Conan doing what he does best, entertaining."
- THINK MCFLY, THINK

"You can't keep a good man down. Or apparently, a good talk show host."
- MOVIEFONE

“Can’t Stop” showcases O’Brien string dancing along that line like a weird marionette, imploring fans to find the weird marionette in themselves."
- JOEL CRARY

"... an intimate portrait of an artist trained in improvisation, captured at the most improvisational time of his career. It offers a window into the private writers room and rehearsal halls as O’Brien’s “half-assed show” (the star’s own words) is almost instantly assembled and mounted to an adoring fan base."
- DOCSPACE

"Conan returns to spotlight"
- BC LOCAL NEWS

"CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP reveals the man inside the hair"
- THE REFLECTOR

"An unflinching view of the real Conan O’Brien"
- DURHAM CENTRAL

Conan’s Summer Camp
- SONIC 1029

"CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP: «Coco», pour le meilleur et pour le pire"
- LA PRESSE

"Fans see a darker side of Conan in new doc"
- THE RECORD

Interview with Rodman Flender
- WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

"Along the way, the film provides fresh insights into the psyche of O'Brien, who, ever since landing on the air at NBC in 1993, has been considered one of TV's nicest, most levelheaded personalities."
- MACLEAN'S

Audio review of CONAN O'BRIEN CAN'T STOP
- CBC METRO MORNING

Audio interview with Rodman Flender
- CBC Radio Q

"...captures the chaos of a 44-gig tour, the overwhelming pressures of celebrity and, in an impressionistic sort of way, O'Brien himself."
- EXCLAIM!

"...plenty funny, leavened by how hilarious O’Brien and his entourage are (Andy Richter seems to be an actual real-life sidekick, which is awesome)."
- TORONTOIST

"Rodman Flender on filming Conan O’Brien: ‘He can’t stop moving’
- THE NATIONAL POST

"‘Conan O’Brien’ doc redefines meaning of backstage pass". Interview with Rodman Flender."
- IN MOVIES

"It’s unclear if O’Brien is pathologically accommodating or just a pathological performer, but whatever the case, you have to concede it: he really does seem unable to stop."
- TORONTO STANDARD

- CANADA AM