Kevin Bronson on September 17th, 2010

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If you’re of a certain generation – like, if you ran to your 45rpm of “Without You” every time a girl rejected you in high school – it’s impossible not to get choked up a few times during the documentary “Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?”

Writer-director John Scheinfeld’s film reinforces the widely held notion that Nilsson, who died in 1994 at age 52, was one of the great pop geniuses of all time – which, if you have 1971’s “Nilsson Schmilsson” in your record collection (and you should), you already knew. But the movie also chronicles Nilsson’s hardscrabble upbringing, his improbable rise and, owing to a self-destructive streak as wide as the singer’s 3 1/2-octave range, his premature demise. And you can see the futile wishes for some kind of retroactive intervention in the eyes of every interviewee.

Though overlong at almost 2 hours and often casting interview subjects in rather harsh camera light, the movie succeeds as a narrative despite the fact Scheinfeld had to rely heavily on still photographs. The inscrutable Nilsson disdained playing live, and footage of his performances comes from television appearances.

The testimonials, anecdotes and perspective come from a Hall of Fame roster – Randy Newman (whose songs Nilsson famously covered on a 1970 album), Van Dyke Parks, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Brian Wilson, Paul Williams, Robin Williams, Mickey Dolenz and the Smothers Brothers, to name a few.

The cautionary tale, though, is told best in the faces of Nilsson’s wives Diane and Una and his children, including son Zak, whom his father barely knew.

Nilsson’s most famous song, “Everybody’s Talkin'” from the movie “Midnight Cowboy,” wasn’t even his own. But his legacy, as poignantly told in Scheinfeld’s movie (which first played in L.A. a few years ago at the “Mods & Rockers Film Festival”), is worth every word they’re saying.

||| When: “Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?” opens tonight at the Sunset Laemmele 5 in West Hollywood.

Photo: A screen grab from the movie’s trailer.