Cinematical has received this exclusive clip from Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, a new documentary written and directed by a very talented friend of ours, Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). The film, which premiered back at the Sundance Film Festival, chronicles, well, the life and times of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas); Gonzo journalist, author, psychedelic supporter and all-around nutty dude. James reviewed the film back at The Dance, and said: " ... Gibney's documentary captures Thompson's bizarre orbit though American letters and politics with extensive use of archival footage but also through recreations, animation and more." IMDb has it at a 9.2 rating out of 10, and Rotten Tomatoes is showing 82% so far for a film I know a lot of people are anticipating. If there's one man you'd want to see a documentary about, it's Thompson. I'm definitely looking forward to this one. You? (For more, also check out James' audio interview with Gibney.)

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson hits theaters on July 4th.

For those who live in and around the New York City area, tonight the Sundance Institute launches their very popular series at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), in which they'll screen a whole bunch of films (22 features, 36 shorts) from this year's festival over the course of the next eleven days. Yours truly will be in attendance this evening for American Teen, followed by a prom-themed after party. A doc about teens? The prom? I'm soooo there!

Other films of note that will be screening include Man on Wire, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Choke, Frozen River, Captain Abu Raed, American Son, Anvil! The Story of Anvil and Ballast, among others. This Sunday, Cinematical's Eric Kohn will be on hand for Sundance Shorts Sunday, featuring 12 hours of short film programs, Q&As with filmmakers and more. He'll report back on what he sees, hears, learns, etc.

They're screening some excellent films this year and I believe tickets are still available for most, so definitely swing by the official website and check out the scene. Sundance Institute at BAM runs from May 29 through June 8. (And if you make it down there tonight, do say hello!)

"Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter." -- Revelations 1:19

Hunter S. Thompson said he always quoted the Bible in his writings -- the lengthy, disciplined-yet-crazy, meticulous-yet-mercurial, false-yet-true not-quite-journalism he crafted for Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone and others -- not because of its prose or principles but because it was the only book guaranteed to be available in the hotel rooms where Thompson would drink, dope and dictate the stories that made him famous in the '60s and '70s. That sort of limited access to information seems unimaginable in this day and age, when you can plug a CAT-5 cable in at almost any hotel and access the Web. And Thompson made his name in a very different world than the one we live in; at the same time, it's not that different. The United States was mired in a long and seemingly unwinnable war; civil liberties were being curtailed in the name of preserving freedom; political primary campaigns were less about issues than personalities. Those things were going on in the '60s and '70s, and some could suggest they're going on now, and our past is woven into our present; when I was looking for something appropriate from Revelations to start this review, I could have looked on the Web ... but I still found a Bible in the bedside table at my hotel.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is a new documentary about Thompson's life and legacy, written and directed by Alex Gibney. Gibney's previously looked at greed (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and war's madness (Taxi to the Dark Side) in prior documentaries that combined journalistic integrity with artistic expression. Looking at the life and work of another journalist who gave what read like track reports for the four horsemen of the apocalypse must have seemed like a natural idea. And while Gonzo incorporates recreations and impressionistic re-stagings (the film opens with a bald, pallid obvious stand-in for Thompson stabbing single fingers at an electric typewriter, then recreates a famed photo of an armed Thompson drawing down on a keyboard in the snow), it also lets Thompson's own work and own voice speak for themselves.

Director Alex Gibney has tackled greed (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and war (the Oscar-shortlisted Taxi to the Dark Side); with his new documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, he tackles a new set of sins and excesses -- from Thompson's then-radical new journalism blending of fact and fiction in the '60s, to Thompson's legendary appetite for self-destruction. Gibney's film includes interviews with a host of people who knew Thompson and his work -- from Hell's Angels leader Sonny Barger to ex-President Jimmy Carter; Thompson moved in eccentric circles, and Gibney's documentary captures Thompson's bizarre orbit though American letters and politics with extensive use of archival footage but also through recreations, animation and more. Asked if Thompson's legacy of mixing fact and fiction made it easy to make a less-than-conventional documentary, Gibney's answer is swift: "I think it made it mandatory; we had to go there. ..."


This interview, like all of Cinematical's podcast offerings, is now available through iTunes; if you'd like, you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below: