"Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" review by Ben Kenber

What better way to spend the Fourth of July then watching a documentary on one of the craziest and most original American writers of the 20th century: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. I felt like I could never figure Hunter out. Whenever I saw other films of his, he seemed like some crazed lunatic who was living in a world of his creation and madness. After watching “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” I feel like I finally get what he is all about. Hunter was as patriotic as an American can get, and while he always seemed to be losing his mind, you cannot deny that he was a true visionary in a lot of ways. One thing is for sure, this fucker was never boring!

This documentary was directed by Alex Gibney who has previously directed the Oscar winning documentary, “Taxi to the Dark Side.” Alex managed to get a lot of people on camera to talk about Hunter from friends and family to those he derided in his articles. The fact that Pat Buchanan participated in this is a big surprise considering that Hunter described him as a “half-crazed Davy Crockett running around the parapets of Nixon’s Alamo.” The writings of Dr. Thompson are featured throughout and narrated by Johnny Depp who played the eccentric author in Terry Gilliam’s film version of “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.”

Hunter S. Thompson is credited with creating Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. This made his writings all the more unique, as there was really no one else on earth like him. Hunter would take on assignments given to him like covering a motorcycle event, and then he would veer off into something else like the death of the American dream. Through his writing, he got at the ugly heart of the matter, and exposed it for all its misleading falsehoods.

“He was a reporter with a wild imagination.”
-author Tom Wolfe

“He was not afraid to express himself in sometimes shocking ways.”
-former President Jimmy Carter

We see Hunter take on his first big assignment while he follows along with the Hell’s Angels in California which he looked up to as the last outlaws in the world. This relationship however turned sour as Hunter witnesses the gang of motorcycle riders gang bang a woman at their party. The group later suspected Hunter of simply trying to profit off of what he wrote, and they beat him up severely. This whole experience ended up shaping as a writer as he looked beyond the façade that is sold to the public on a regular basis.

One of the most interesting parts of this documentary is how it shows his love of America and of his sadness over the death of one of his most favorite politicians, Robert Kennedy. It is made clear how Hunter so wanted to believe in the hope of a better future. His sadness only deepens when he is witness to the gas and the beatings at the Democratic convention that same year Bobby died. Hunter ends up berating the democrats for not doing their part to put an end to it.

I got a huge kick out of the section of the film where he runs for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado. This part of the documentary really showed how visionary Dr. Thompson really was as he had all these plans for revitalizing the town of Aspen. He called for the decriminalization of drugs for personal use, but wanted to keep a ban on trafficking as he was no fan of people profiting off of selling it. Furthermore, he wanted to tear up the streets and replace them with grassy pedestrian malls, he proposed placing a ban on tall buildings being built as they obscured his view of the mountains, and he wanted to rename Aspen “Fat City” as to deter investors who wanted to commercialize the city endlessly. Of course, Hunter lost the election which was no real surprise to him, but his run for the office was never forgotten.

The documentary also does a great job of looking at the various relationships that Hunter had throughout his lifetime. We get a look at his marriages and learned what it was like living with him. To know Hunter was to tolerate him. Perhaps the most interesting relationship documented in “Gonzo” is that of Hunter and artist Ralph Steadman, who created some of the most insane drawings that accompanied Dr. Thompson’s feverish writings in Rolling Stone magazine. It is interesting to see that Ralph was actually a conventional artist whose work was no different from anyone else’s. Then Hunter turned Ralph on to drugs which he had never done before, and his work evolved into what he is best known for. There is a great moment where we see Ralph at work, and he has this utterly insane look on his face like he is gleefully possessed. Who knows what would have happened to Ralph had he never met Hunter.

Perhaps the most important (and overlong) section of “Gonzo” is when Hunter supports George McGovern’s run for President of the United States. McGovern was the democratic nominee who was running against incumbent President Richard Nixon (and we all know what happened to him). The war on Vietnam was raging on, and hundreds of young American lives were being snuffed out day after day. McGovern ran and sought to put an end to the Vietnam war which the whole country had now gone against. Hunter had a vicious hatred of Nixon, and he saw the possibility of Nixon going on to a second term as President as a possible death blow to this country.

As important as this section of the documentary, I felt it was a bit overlong and could have been cut down some. It gets redundant and that we clearly get the message of Thompson’s disillusionment with politics and with politicians in general. I found myself getting sleepy and restless. Fortunately, “Gonzo” does pick up in the last half as we see how Hunter became trapped by his fame, and how his work suffered as a result. But the McGovern section is still important, especially when McGovern is interviewed in the documentary and says this:

“I desperately wanted to put an end to that senseless war [in Vietnam]. I’m sick and tired of old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.”

Sound familiar? No wonder Hunter got so depressed when George W. Bush got elected, and of when the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11th, 2001. Hunter did write about that in Rolling Stone and I remember reading a lot of his work on that. Hunter wrote on that as if he knew exactly what this would all lead, another war overseas with America striking back in revenge mode. The question was which country was going to feel our wrath. This was all another depressing example of how history repeats itself (doesn’t anybody fucking learn?).

For the most part, “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson” does a great job of making you understand him better, and to understand where he was coming from in his work. We need people like Hunter in our world, people who challenge authority and to get us riled up about the way the country is heading. His suicide, other than being very selfish and hardly noble, robbed us of a powerful voice that we need in times like these where we have a President who’s make the same mistakes all over again. Hunter was a crazy man at times, and he was probably also proof that if you take enough drugs, they will completely mess up your head. But you had to love the son of a bitch because he was never boring, and he was always fearless. We may not want to indulge in illegal drugs, but I imagine that many of us would love to be as forceful, intelligent and fearless as Hunter was.

This documentary makes me want to read (or re-read) Hunter’s work which is a vision in beautifully cathartic writing. There will never be another man like him.

Also, if you have a chance, rent the Criterion Collection edition of Terry Gilliam’s “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.” The commentary track with Hunter on that disc has to be heard to be believed!

***1/2 out of ****

"WALL*E" review by Ben Kenber

You know what I’m sick of? I’m sick of parents not being able to control their damn children while they watch a movie, any movie. This problem reached a hellish peak for me when I saw “Cars” a couple of years ago at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, and there were hundreds of kids in the audience with parents who didn’t even try to shut them up. It put me off ever again going there on the opening weekend of a film. Today, I went and saw the newest Pixar film, “WALL*E” at the AMC Theater in Century City. Just my luck, this man sitting right behind me brought his two young daughters who were probably 3 or 4 years old. They kept talking, asking their dad question after question like:

“Is that WALL*E?”

“Is WALL*E okay?”

“That’s WALL*E!”

“Why don’t these adults leave us the fuck alone?!”

…Okay, I made that last sentence up. When you’re that age, you have no awareness of how annoying you can be. Kids are endlessly inquisitive, and these two had to me inquisitive right over my head. They kept walking up and down the stairs like they owned the place, and many of us had to keep shushing them throughout the first half of the movie. Now I can see why a lot of my friends who love movies have all but given up on going to the movies at all. Why put up with all the noise when you can watch the movie in the comfort of your home?

I don’t know. Maybe this is some sort of karmic revenge on me. I can’t say that I acted any differently when I was young. I remember being an annoying pain in the ass when I saw “Mary Poppins.” Then there was when I was a teenager, and I got into the habit of rolling aluminum cans down the middle of the theater during such cinematic classics like “Death Warrant” with Jean Claude Van Damme. The past always comes back to haunt you, so I guess there is no escape for me.

Anyway, regardless of that nuisance I have to put up with, it didn’t take away from the fact that “WALL*E” is another brilliant achievement from the people at Pixar. Right now, they have the most impressive track record of any movie studio. Of course, this may have to do with the fact that their focus is mainly on quality as opposed to trying to find the next franchise to spawn, or the next classic horror film to pillage in a needless remake. Other studios should be looking up to Pixar in how they make movies because this way, we would have more of a reason to go to the movies instead of avoiding them.

“WALL*E” was directed by Andrew Stanton who has previously directed one of the very best Pixar movies, “Finding Nemo.” It takes place in the very distant future when Earth is no longer inhabitable due to the uncontrollable pollution, and everyone lives in spaceships up in the sky. In the midst of all this pollution and garbage is WALL*E whose name is really an acronym which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class. There are many like him, but this particular load lifter has actually developed a quirky personality. While he compacts waste into squares, he also collects things like Zippo lighters, Rubik’s Cubes, and parts from other similar models which he can use as replacement parts on his body if anything falls apart. He lives a very lonely life with no one to converse with except a cockroach who he lets wander around his home aboard a broken down construction vehicle, and he is always watching scenes from the musical “Hello Dolly.”

Then one day, he is visited by a large spaceship which a makes a very loud landing on the barren planet. Released from it is a probe named EVE, and after some dangerous close encounters, WALL*E earns her trust and her friendship. This friendship however gets tested when EVE’s mothership comes back, and WALL*E hangs on for dear life as the ship heads into space and towards a ship where many humans live. What happens when WALL*E and EVE get onboard this ship will end up changing the course of everyone’s lives and change the way they live.

Despite those endlessly annoying thumb suckers restlessly annoying everyone near to them, I was lucky enough to see this movie in digital. Just when I thought Pixar couldn’t top itself, it does yet again. The animation in this movie is predictably brilliant, but now it’s getting to where I can’t tell what’s animated and what’s real. That Rubik’s cube WALL*E and EVE play with looks ever so real. The attention to detail in these movies is so frightening in its precision, and Pixar is always improving upon itself.

But the one thing that really makes the Pixar movies so damn good is the stories they come up with, and the characters they create are ever so memorable. WALL*E’s design does remind one of Number 5 from the “Short Circuit,” and he is every bit as quirky as that character from the 80’s. Pixar also takes a lot of risks with their films, and they take a big one by making the movie devoid of dialogue for the first half hour. I imagine this would freak out other studios for no particularly good reason, but not Pixar. The fact that there is no dialogue shows how good director Andrew Stanton is in showing things without saying them.

“What are words for when no one listens anymore?”

“Do you hear me? Do you care?”

-Missing Persons

The movie is undeniably cute without having to be incredibly manipulative, and that’s quite an accomplishment considering how movies for kids can get unbearably cute and manipulative. There were a bunch of trailers for family movies before the movie started, and all of them looked incredibly annoying to me. Especially annoying was that trailer for those three flies who hitch a ride with astronauts to the moon. I don’t care if it’s in 3D, those kind of movies get on nerves in no time. But with Pixar, they are to me today what the Muppets were to me in 1980’s. They appeal to both kids and adults, and that is a truly great experience if you can ever find it.

When the movie moves to the spaceship hovering just outside of the Milky Way galaxy, the movie gets even more amazing on a visual level. The moment where WALL*E is hanging for dear life outside of the spaceship, and he is touching the rings of Saturn is a beautiful moment in a movie that is full of them. The spaceship that he and EVE end up on is called the Axiom, and all its passengers are obese people who sit and move all day long in chairs because being in space for so long has robbed them of most of their bone density. Here’s a movie that doesn’t hide from the horrors of being a coach potato.

In the end, WALL*E and EVE are machines, but you end up caring for them completely. They do make the perfect couple even if one of them is more advanced than the other. The heart of the movie is how these two come together, and of the changes they inadvertently make in everyone’s life.

WALL*E is voiced by Ben Burtt, and he is responsible for some of the most well known sounds in movie history: the lightsabers from “Star Wars” as well as the aliens and droids from those movies, and he created the sound of that rumbling gigantic boulder in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Ben can now add this character to his great volume of work with pride. The character itself manages to convey so much through the use of sound with gestures. Whenever WALL*E tilts his mechanical eyes, he can easily go from emotion to emotion, and his voice adds to that.

EVE is the perfect match for WALL*E, an example of how the old and the more advanced can make the saying of opposites attract seem all the more valid. Beautiful in its sleekness, with two blue eyes to make her emotions all the more real, EVE is also a brilliantly thought out character (and a little too trigger happy for her own good). The moments when these two machines connect are beautiful, and gets you right in the heart in a way that is not at all manipulative (thank god for that).

When the movie goes into the spaceship, it is a wonderful jab at how we humans have allowed ourselves to let technology overwhelm us and have it do all the work. Laziness and complacency is so easy to achieve when you have someone or something else doing all the work for you. As a result, everyone on the ship is always in a chair that continually moves around. Exercise is not a priority, and in fact, you never see any exercising at all. In all fairness, being space for so long has resulted in their bones almost disappearing, and this is something NASA has to think about before they think about sending astronauts to Mars. When the people of the ship rise against the technology that is holding them back, it’s a fantastic moment in the film.

I’m not sure what else I can say about this film other than it’s another home run for the folks at Pixar. I look forward to whatever they end up doing next year and the year after that. “WALL*E” is easily one of the best movies to come out in 2008, and it is now the movie to beat this summer. I also hope to look forward to seeing a movie without two kids hovering over me and talking throughout the movie as though the theater was their own personal playground. Hey! You parents! You can’t treat your kids like the cell phones you refuse to silence and endlessly converse on at the most inconvenient of times!
Anyway, enough of that rant…

**** out of ****

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" movie review by Ben Kenber

Man! I was so frackin’ lucky to see this before I flew out of LAX on Friday. I was afraid I would have to wait a whole week to see this one, and it brought back bad memories of when I was forced to wait to see some of the movies I desperately wanted to view. Fortunately, I managed to get off of work early and haul ass to the nearest movie theater to view a movie 19 years in the making before I had to rush off to the airport.

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is another in a long line of films listed as “the most eagerly awaited film in movie history!” However, what the “Star Wars” prequels and “The Matrix” sequels taught us (whatever you thought of them) is that the expectation of something tends to be far more exciting than the actual finished product. That always works against movies like these because we are just soooo excited about them, and they never meet our expectations. Ever since I saw “Star Trek V – The Final Frontier,” I have done my best to keep my expectations at bay. It is way too easy to be disappointed by a movie that you restlessly wait for. I came into the latest adventure of Indiana Jones just wanting to have a good time, and you know what? That’s exactly what I got!

The newest Indiana Jones movie is not without its flaws, as is the case with all the sequels in this franchise. The script at times is rather convoluted, and it’s a little hard to figure out what the whole deal with the crystal skull is (a second viewing may end up rectifying that). It's no “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but to expect it to be is ridiculous. The first adventure of Dr. Jones is such a classic and held so far up in the pantheon of movies that it is impossible to beat it in terms of its entertainment value and freshness. Just seeing Harrison Ford put on that fedora one more time was more than enough for me.

This movie moves Indiana Jones to the 1950’s, and the Nazis are all gone (just as well). In their place are the Russians, the villains of choice back in the 1980’s until US relations with them improved. Indy and his pal 'Mac' George McHale (Ray Winstone, the voice of “Beowulf”) have been captured by the Ruskies and taken over to Area 51 in New Mexico, the warehouse where the US government hides all the things it wants no one else to see (The Ark of the Covenant makes a cameo appearance). This leads to the first big action sequence that gets the movie off to a quick start and has those “whoa” moments that I am always looking for in action movies. Indy’s final escape from the area does seem a bit ridiculous, but these movies deal with death-defying actions, and these are stories that take a place in a reality somewhat removed from our own.

Dr. Henry Jones Jr. (his real name as we learned it from “The Last Crusade”) still teaches archaeology courses at the university he has always taught at, but soon finds himself dismissed as he is under suspicion of being a Communist. Back in the days of the Joseph McCarthy era, you were guilty until proven innocent. Time has certainly for Indy and his university friend Dean Charles Stanforth (Jim Broadbent from “Hot Fuzz”), and they have both lost friends over the years like Indy’s father and Marcus Brody (played by the late Denholm Elliott, who is appropriately acknowledged here years after his death). Just as Indy heads off to go around the world, he is visited by Mutt Williams, a 50’s greaser played by Shia LeBeouf. Mutt informs Indiana that his mother has been kidnapped, and that she needs his help to get to this Crystal Skull. This artifact promises to give one power when it is returned to its rightful place, an immense power that the Russians want every bit as much. It is a little bit hard to describe what the big deal is about the Crystal Skull in words, and it is likely that I will be viewing this movie again soon to be sure.

The Russians are led by Irina Spalko, and she is played with utter relish by Cate Blanchett. She is a cold, steely woman whose interest in psychic powers and education in said subject proves to be more dangerous than anyone can realize. Like all the villains in this franchise, she lusts for ultimate power and will get it at any cost. Of course, her lust and greed will lead to her eventual undoing. You know how these Indiana Jones movies go. Irina may not be the greatest villain in this franchise, but she is still a formidable foe as embodied by Blanchett, one of many actresses out there who can play just about anybody.

The movie features great stunts that, even if they are not entirely believable, still generate a good deal of excitement. Some are ridiculously over the top, like Shia’s character swinging along vines with the monkeys. But then again, not everything in this movie is meant to be completely believable. Spielberg said he would not rely so much on CGI effects in this movie, but you do notice them when you see them, and it does take away from the action a little. In the end, the movie keeps up at a pace which never lets up so that you can catch your breath.

Many have said that Harrison Ford is just too damn old to play this part, or to be in any action movie at all. This was probably brought up more when he did “Firewall” which ended up doing poorly at the box office. Frankly, I am sick of all this talk about him being at the AARP age level. Ford certainly doesn’t look his age, and he still handles the action scenes with a gusto that you never doubt. No one will ever surpass Ford in this iconic role, and I would hate to see anyone else try. God forbid Michael Bay tries to remake any of the other movies here!

But one of the real masterstrokes that Spielberg and Lucas did hear was bring back Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, Indiana’s love from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It is so great to see her again as she matches wits with Indiana at every step of the way. Marion also turns out to be Mutt’s mother, and this leads to other revelations that I invite you to see for yourself. There is a line in the movie where Marion and Indy are in the back of a truck trying to escape, and she asks Indy why his other relationships didn’t last, and Indy says:

“Because they weren’t you Marion.”

This points the obvious of how the other heroines of these movies didn’t even come close to matching the wonderful presence of this character, and Karen continues to be such an immensely engaging presence in this and other movies she does. Her character is not like the whiny bitch Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) from “Temple of Doom,” nor is she the underwritten cold character played by Allison Doody from “The Last Crusade.” It is clear that everyone involved knew that they could do no worse than to bring Karen back. I am very glad that they did.

The big surprise I got from watching this movie was the performance of Shia LeBeouf. I expected him to be an annoying sidekick a la Short Round from “Temple Of Doom,” and essentially give us the same performance as he did in “Transformers.” That was not the case at all as he perfectly slipped into the mold of a 50’s greaser out to save his mother. He matches wits well with Harrison Ford as they journey together to other countries on a search and rescue mission. Thus, we get another one of those scenes where we see a map and a red line showing where our heroes are going, silhouetted against the planes and other transportation they use to get to their final destination. Shia is very good here, even if he does end up on the verge of some Wesley Crusher-like moments.

Ray Winstone is also very good here, as he is in just about everything he does. At first, I started to think that his character was somewhat unnecessary, and was basically there as a foil for both Indy and the plot of the movie. However, Ray’s performance helps to make some of the more implausible moments in the film actually believable as he sucks us into what his character wants, and he convinces us of this as much as he does Indiana Jones.

I have to give the filmmakers some credit as they took their iconic hero and placed him in another period of time. To have Indy fighting the Nazis would have been overkill, and we already know what happened to them. Having Dr. Jones go up against the Russians showed that at least the filmmakers were trying something a little bit different instead of just giving the audience the same old thing. There are a lot of moments where Spielberg and Lucas pay homage to the earlier Indy movies as well as to other Spielberg movies like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” There is a big sci-fi element to this movie in particular which was not as big as in the other movies, but these movies have always indulged in the world of fantasies be it real or imagined.

There is actually a surprising lack of snakes in this sequel, but one does make a memorable cameo appearance. The main animals to fear here are red ants who, even in their CGI form, are terrifying man and woman eaters. We even worry about them devouring the bad guys. Even if the angry red ants do look a bit fake, they still left me unnerved like all the dangerous animals in an Indiana Jones do.

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is by no means a perfect movie, but then again, we had no right to expect it to be. None of the sequels in this series were perfect either, but whatever flaws they had were eventually redeemed by their entertainment factor which was far above most other action films you see. The only movie in this franchise that has any right to be called perfect is “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and nothing is ever going to top that. Ever.

I would probably rate this particular sequel just right above “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” While that one may have been a little more entertaining, it also had a first half and characters that drove me up the wall. It doesn’t have the same amount of heart and character as did the 1st or 3rd movies in this franchise, but those characters still remain true to their origins and they keep us engaged in the action. In the end, it is pointless to get too critical on the Indiana Jones movies, let alone this one. To take it apart limb from limb would take the fun out of it, and these movies are really made for the moviegoers more than anyone else. No one should ever come into any movie expecting it to be a classic, and it certainly goes with this one.

In terms of the summer movies released so far, “Iron Man” is still the movie to beat. “Indiana Jones 4” is not able to beat it out there, but “Iron Man” is a strong movie for more or less the same reasons that “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was when it was first released. They both brought a freshness and energy to their genres that had felt somewhat dormant, and they were created by filmmakers who cared about the stories and the characters that they were bringing to the screen. “Iron Man” will eventually lead to a number of sequels, most of which will probably not hold a candle to the original. While we want some of the same old stuff, we also want something new that brings a new edge to what we saw before. With the latest adventure of Indiana Jones, it was business as usual, and that was more than enough for me.

And stop telling me that Harrison Ford is too old to be doing movies like this because frankly, I don’t give a shit!

*** out of ****