Come What May Review: A Tragic Look at the Iconic Stand-up Comic

When Ralphie May passed in 2017, it felt like an inevitability and still far too early. The comedian was well known for his comedy, but his hard living on the road was obvious to anyone who saw him in the last few years of his life. Come What May takes us behind the scenes of his final years through a mix of home movies and archival footage. Co-directed by Lahna Turner, May’s widow, and David Gantz, the documentary provides a peek behind the persona.

What is Come What May about?

For Turner and Gantz to tell the story of Ralphie May, there are two distinct storylines that receive focus. First, we explore his early years as a comedian coming up in the industry. Many of the home videos and movies of this era help show the incredible intimacy and vulnerability May showed his audience and friends. Using talking heads from dozens of great comedians, including Tiffany Haddish, Jay Mohr, and Jeff Ross, we get a picture of why May became a star.

However, towards the end of his life, we get a different view of his struggles. After suffering a pulmonary embolism on a cruise ship, May’s depression worsened. Combined with new pain-killing drugs, his quality of life and energy quickly declined. As his relationships disintegrated with his wife and friends, May hit the road for tours but found himself unable to finish sets. His eventual passing came in Las Vegas.

The intimate home footage offsets the overly long runtime.

Come What May certainly gets in its laughs and jokes. It would be hard for any movie about Ralphie May to miss that aspect of his life. He was often a mood-changing comedian, and hearing other comedians rant about his unique skills only furthers that claim. Whether he was influential on the scene or not, he clearly became a comedian’s comedian, which might be an even more impressive feat.

While his interactions with a handful of celebrities, including Mohr, Jay Leno, and Kevin Smith, help us get an idea of May as a figure, it’s the intimacy of those closest to him that really highlights his struggles. Rather than sanding over his flaws, Come What May opens with its subject telling the filmmakers to be honest about who he was in life. Turner and Gantz certainly honor that request, highlighting his brilliance as a father while showcasing his demons in tragic footage.

The role of Turner as a documentarian and wife of the subject makes Come What May a particularly tricky situation. The two-hour runtime is too long, with many opportunities to tighten the flow. However, her proximity and feelings for her husband are obviously casting a shadow over the storylines. May and Turner were in the process of a divorce at the end of his life, and while the paperwork was never finalized, their separation, the footage never really hints at reconciliation.

At the same time, Turner is a subject and talking head in her own right. That conflict of participant, subject, talking head, and director is complicated. Yet to Come What May‘s credit, she’s also shown in unflattering lights and described as co-dependent. Come What May never takes it “easy” on Turner as a figure, but regardless of how much it picks at her flaws, it’s still an inherent conundrum at the center of the film.

The home footage is impossible to ignore because of its sincerity. We see May desperately trying to figure his life out with his kids and genuinely loving them. Yet Come What May then shows the mess of his tour bus, the way pills were being used, and his inconsistent stories about his life. By confronting his flaws head-on, Come What May is far more of a tragedy than any other kind of tale.

This, combined with figures like Mohr speaking about what May still means to him, helps to paint an all-too-familiar picture. We saw Chris Farley and John Belushi constantly seek praise and laughs despite their struggles. Without the right people in their lives at the right moments, that was always going to be impossible to fix. For all the joy Ralphie May brought to the world, he lived a brilliant life that did not always help him feel like a better person.

Is Come What May worth watching?

Yes, especially if you liked Ralphie May. It’s one of the few documentaries unwilling to pretend its protagonist has no flaws. If anything, we get more insight into what made May tick, even to his detriment. That unfiltered image of May is part of why audiences loved him. At any moment, Ralphie May could shift the mood through a joke or two. If there’s any legacy that Come What May will pass on, it’s that incredible charisma.

Come What May is in select theaters starting April 28, 2026. See listings here.

Come What May Review: A Tragic Look at the Iconic Stand-up Comic