A Liar's Autobiography - Animated Monty Python Biography

*** out of *****

Running time: 82 minutes

MPAA rating: R For strong and crude sexual content including graphic animated sequences, language and some violent images.

Graham Chapman was a brilliant, funny writer/comedian, one of the founding members of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the ground-breaking and highly influential comedy troupe.

He played King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the title character in Life of Brian, and portrayed numerous other characters in their film and television projects, as well as other memorable parts which ranged from the absurd to the more absurd.

Before he died in 1989, Chapman (with several contributors) finished an autobiography which is the basis of this film, directed by Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson and Ben Timlett.

Told in a series of short, stylistically varied animated vignettes, the film features Chapman's voice as the sometime narrator and participant, plus the voices of the other Pythons (minus Eric Idle), Carol Cleveland, Cameron Diaz and others.

Not so much a true biographical work as a series of musings on Chapman's life and times, A Liar's Autobiography is required viewing for Python devotees, but will make little sense to the uninitiated, as a familiarity with the references is essential to enjoying the picture.

James Delson attended NYU film school, studying under Martin Scorsese and William K. Everson. He has been the film and television critic for WFUV-FM, WNYC-FM, Omni, Psychology Today and Fantastic Films magazines. He assembled an extensive private library of film research materials, numbering over 2,000,000 clippings which he used to prepare for 600 in-depth interviews with many of the most important filmmakers of the past four decades. Delson became the country's first computer gaming critic in 1983, his reviews appearing in Scholastic's Family Computing magazine. He donated his reference collection to the Museum of Modern Art where it was incorporated into their Film Study Center. Since 1984 he has owned and operated The Toy Soldier Company, which offers its vintage and current toys through a monthly catalog and an on-line website: www.toysoldierco.com.