While Not Gonzo, Reason Still Pretty Darn Good
Director Charlie Paul spent 15 years amassing footage about legendary animator, artist and author Ralph Steadman, the last of the remaining ‘Gonzo’ journalists who worked with idiosyncratic literary wild-child Hunter S. Thompson. The two are best known for their collaboration on the Las Vegas expose Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. But their friendship and working relationship went far beyond that 1971 effort, the pair also joining forces on everything from the “Rumble in the Jungle” to the Kentucky Derby to their Hawaiian adventures chronicled in The Curse of Lono.
The documentary film For No Good Reason is the culmination of Paul’s efforts. Utilizing a framing device featuring actor and Thompson devotee Johnny Depp visiting Steadman at his sprawling U.K. home, the movie intersperses interviews with the likes of Terry Gilliam, Richard E. Grant and Jann Wenner alongside footage of the artist creating some of the outlandish, one-of-a-kind surrealistic images he’s most known for. Added to the mixture is archival footage from a variety of sources (some of it of Stedman, a lot of it with Thompson),this extra material hoping to paint as full a picture as possible of the artist and his creative process.
It’s interesting stuff, watching Steadman and Depp (who more or less narrates) pal around hardly a chore. But that picture? That picture isn’t nearly as well-developed as I think Paul means for it to be, and even with 15 years to put everything together the director still can’t quite get a handle on the bigger picture he’s attempting to construct. Things remain fairly ephemeral, and while maybe that is as it should be that didn’t stop me from wanting more than what the movie was willing to give.
No matter. For No Good Reason is still awfully entertaining. The archival footage is incredible, while the fashion in which Stedman works is as one of a kind and as uniquely original as anything a person possibly ever could have imagined it was going to be. While there’s not tons of insight into the artist’s process I did still get a decent feel of what his time working in tandem with Thompson meant to him. Paul’s movie isn’t awesome, and it never quite captures that gonzo aesthetic Stedman and his compatriots were known for. But it’s still fascinating in its own way, and for fans of the artist there isn’t a reason good or bad that I can come up with to dissuade them from taking the time to give this film a look.
– Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
