Sara Stewart

Sara Stewart

Movies

‘Elaine Stritch: Shoot me’ chronicles life of an aging legend

At age 89, there may be no one who more embodies Stephen Sondheim’s song “I’m Still Here” than Broadway veteran Elaine Stritch. In this loving but unflinching documentary shot around her (possibly?) last one-woman cabaret tour, the star gives us a generous and hilarious portrait of life as an aging legend.

“I’ve got fans, I’ve got money . . . I wish I could f - - kin’ drive!” she bellows when someone inquires about her well-being. Stritch’s candor, for which she’s as well known as her inimitable singing voice and mile-long legs, is the defining theme here, and she spares no one. Not her music director and friend, Rob Bowman, and not director Chiemi Karasawa, whom she micromanages even in a seemingly spontaneous moment: “Don’t you think you’re awfully close to me?” she says. “ I mean, I don’t know if this is a skin commercial or what.”

Younger viewers may know her as the irascible mother of Alec Baldwin’s character on “30 Rock,” and he’s one of the many stars who turn up here to rave about her. The late James Gandolfini is another, adding the charming revelation that “if we had met when we were both 35, I have no doubt we would have had a torrid love affair that would have ended badly.”

Diabetes and other health issues come up frequently, and a frustrated Stritch sometimes forgets lyrics. In front of a crowd, though, this world-class pro just makes it another opportunity for her brand of saucy ad-lib.