Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson, My Effortless Brilliance

SIFF officially kicked in today with a screening of GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON and MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE at the Egyptian. I'm going for CAPS this year on the movie titles, by the way. Brilliant idea, I know.

GONZO is a loosely assembled hodge-podge of clips, reenactments, sounds and music that flow along a timeline of milestones throughout Thompson's life. Narrated solely through interviews and direct readings from his work by Johnny Depp, it offers up a glimpse at a more personal side behind what in later years could only be determined through reports of Thompson's reclusive personality.

The movie begins with some awkward editing sloppiness which continues at times throughout, and is later dotted by semi-frequent cliched musical interludes, however in its attempt to show Thompson's life it succeeds in portraying not only the biographical aspects of how his writing was shaped, but also a more deeper analysis of what his writings and his character have meant for the political landscape of our country.

Depp's narration of the movie was less painful than one might otherwise expect, though occasional on-screen moments reading out of a book seemed out of place and unnecessary. These portions and other b-roll could have been dropped altogether to tighten the film, which ran at roughly 2 hours.

One of the highlights of GONZO isn't really about Thompson at all: it's a glimpse at the phenomenal work of Ralph Steadman.

MY EFFORTLESS BRILLIANCE is described by director Lynn Shelton as an experiment in making the filmmaking process as organic as possible. It started by first identifying the actors, then building characters around them, and then finally scene suggestion where dialogue was all ad-lib in front of the camera as it was rolling. What came out of this was a natural conversational feel to the movie -- you could tell there was no way it was scripted, but the strengths of the actors were such that it didn't matter. The dynamic between the two leads was incredibly natural and helped drive the success of the film.

AUDIENCE WATCH: Even after a stern warning from festival programmer Beth Barett about cell phone peeking during the film, the woman to my left couldn't resist the warm glow of mobile love about an hour into BRILLIANCE. Piling onto that was two separate individuals in another row making loud crinkly sounds with their popcorn/candy bags for at least a good half hour apiece. People love to hear their own noises!