The Fluffy Movie

So much of a stand-up comedian's success hinges on their ability to connect to an audience, and to connect the people in the audience to each other through laughter. The material of comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias seems especially dependent on an audience investment in the inspirational and emotional aspects of his life story, from his battle with morbid obesity to his rocky relationship with his girlfriend's son to his own estranged father. That's the appeal of The Fluffy Movie, an affable but unremarkable feature-length stand-up concert documentary filmed over two nights in San Jose, and the problem. There is a casual and somewhat lazy assumption in the material that the viewer is already familiar with the Fluffy origin story, so The Fluffy Movie is both an insufficient entry point for newbies, and a too-familiar series of callbacks for longtime Fluffy fans.