In just five years John Belushi went from working at Chicago’s Second City comedy club to starring as Kissinger and Beethoven on Saturday Night Live, John Blutarsky in Animal House, and “Joliet” Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers. It was a whirlwind of success, fame, and hard partying that ended as swiftly as it started, with the actor’s death by drug overdose at just 33. A new documentary by R. J. Cutler (The War Room, A Perfect Candidate) gets at the man behind the classic characters. Among the friends and family interviewed for the film are Dan Aykroyd, the other Blues Brother; Chevy Chase, who first recommended Belushi to S.N.L. creator Lorne Michaels; Michaels himself; and Judy Belushi Pisano, Belushi’s wife until his death in 1982. —J.V.