Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

The idea that genius relies on emotional dysfunction isn’t really questioned here. And perhaps it should be.

Gibney's focus on Thompson at his most politically relevant is welcome, but it renders the broader picture less than complete, particularly when it comes to his early life influences.

A definitive, accessible, even inspiring screen biography put together with thought and vitality.

The film's plea that we need Thompson now more than ever is a little misty-eyed: Thompson's day was long gone by the time he put a gun to his head.

Gonzo is much more than a tribute to a maverick and genuine pioneer. It's a lament for the gaping hole that Thompson left behind. The only obvious weakness is Gibney's reluctance to engage fully with Thompson's toxic personal life.

This documentary about his life by Alex Gibney, though entertaining in many ways, is oddly uninterested in his strengths or otherwise as a writer, the very gift for which Thompson earnestly wished to be known.

Thompson shot himself in despair. The critical issue, which the film sidesteps, is the utterly moribund state of American liberalism.

Gonzo is an intimate portrait of a character who was truly larger than life.

It serves both as an introduction to the life and times of an influential American and as a way to reflect on the ways in which news is handled today.

Thompson is dead but his skepticism survives. In the land of endless corruption, the muckraker is king, if only in the moral sense.