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Gonzo: Hunter Thompson up close

By Mina Hochberg | amNewYork Movie Critic

3:07 PM EDT, July 2, 2008

Hunter Thompson, in a scene from Alex Gibney's 'Gonzo.' (AP Photo/Magnolia Pictures)

Documentarian Alex Gibney's last two films -- one an Oscar winner and the other an Oscar nominee, one about the evils of corporate America and the other about military torture practices -- were shocking, enraging and timely. Which makes "Gonzo" and its less pressing subject matter something of a departure for Gibney.

"Gonzo" is as engaging a biography of Hunter S. Thompson as one could want in a film. Gibney wrangles an impressive lineup of luminaries -- from Jimmy Carter to Tom Wolfe to the many professional cohorts Thompson accumulated during his drug-addled rise to literary fame -- to recount their fondest, most articulate memories of the notorious journalist, who killed himself at his Colorado home in 2005. There's not much about Thompson's life that hasn't already been reported or dramatized or mythologized by now, but Gibney's access to photos and footage, and the cooperation he received from Thompson's closest friends and family, bestows on "Gonzo" an intimacy that grips you with every passing minute.

Does the world need another definitive account of Thompson's life? As the opening credits started to roll and Johnny Depp, who narrates the film, is shown reading from one of Thompson's books, you can't help but wonder. By the film's end, though, it's clear that the relevance of "Gonzo" lies not within the familiar details of Thompson's life, but in the tribute Gibney pays to a fearless spirit and intrepid writer. Even if he wasn't the most illuminating voice in journalism, Thompson did, as a Rolling Stone colleague summed up perfectly, capture a "truth about human perversity." And so the documentary leaves you with a palpable regret that Thompson never penned a Fear and Loathing in the Bush Administration or on the 2008 Campaign Trail.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Documentary by Alex Gibney, narrated by Johnny Depp