Ellen DeGeneres: The Beginning

2000
7.4| 1h6m| en
Details

Ellen shares her humorous observations on daily life, including remembering names, clothing, the need for approval, and making personal videos in this post-coming-out performance, fully acknowledges Ellen DeGeneres's status as America's most famous lesbian.

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Reviews

GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Jensen Nguyen This performance marks 3 years after the "come-out" of Ellen Degeneres. FYI, Ellen was raised in a strict Christian Science environment, and although she no longer goes to that church, she believes in God and her belief is evidently shown in this performance. As she always has been funny and witty style, Ellen also shows her love and passion for people and animals. My favorite part is how Ellen chooses to end the show with such impressive story of her meeting with God. It makes us laugh for the moment, but then when we find "the silence", we can see how incredible and sophisticated this woman is. If you are a fan of Ellen DeGeneres, you cannot miss this.
hmcaminiti You can read what some nay sayers post or you can read a professional critique, without a slant that one much question if homophobia played a role instead of fair and balanced review. Ellen doesn't have a top rated TV show AGAIN by mistake, read below..............This post-coming-out performance fully acknowledges Ellen DeGeneres's status as America's most famous lesbian, but it is nevertheless imbued with a sense of fun. For instance, rather than describe the experience of closet-exiting on her self-titled situation comedy in the late 1990s, she performs an amusing "interpretive dance." She uses her trademark goofiness to ruminate on the necessity of directions on shampoo bottles, ant road rage, and the possible nightmarish consequences of buying cheese. While the performance is not orientation-specific, the comedienne spends a fair amount of time on sex-related issues, including jokes about blow-up dolls and people who videotape their relations. She does venture into the political with an appeal for same-sex marriage and a monologue on meeting God, who turns out to be a middle-aged black woman. None of this fazes her clearly supportive audience at New York's Beacon Theatre who get to ask her questions at the end à la Carol Burnett. The best moment of the 65-minute performance for HBO comes at the end, when DeGeneres accidentally exhibits some gender confusion with a young audience member, who then pays her moving tribute as a role model. --Kimberly Heinrichs
tonte Ellen De Generes at her best. This is a must see for anyone into comedy. Timing is excellent and routines are brilliant. De Generes proves she still has what it takes to wow an audience. The opening dance sequence displays another side of De Generes to her fans. Don't miss this...
nunculus Ellen DeGeneres seems like a very nice person. She may remind you of the most helpful woman at the food co-op or an extremely affable first-grade teacher. She is not, however, what we call real funny. Nor is she a very good joke-teller (her funny parenthetical asides are given GIANT CAPITAL LETTERS). Nor is she what we call especially interesting--her routine here resembles the attempts of a pleasant but not particularly bright person to make chitchatty conversation. Crunchy (but not gnarly) lesbians will have a warm smile. For everyone else, it's kind of like watching someone else's massage.