The film gets as close to Hicks the man as we can hope for, and he emerges as an even more courageous, visionary figure as a result.

| Mar 13, 2017

Directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas work wonders with the old photos, animating and enhancing them to simulate Hicks' excellent adventure.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 8, 2011

It's greatness as a documentary is debatable, but as a eulogy, it's damn near unparalleled.

| Jun 26, 2011

They bring Hicks back to life, his rants still sounding fresh and brilliant. Scorched ears never felt so good.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 22, 2011

Ultimately, the doc comes off as yet another reminder that, in showbiz and elsewhere, one of the greatest tragedies in life is unfulfilled promise.

Full Review | Apr 15, 2011

A portrait of the short-lived artist that will move fans while letting the uninitiated witness enough onstage highlights to leave them wanting more.

| Apr 15, 2011

In the stand-up world, to be a cerebral comic in America is to invite anonymity. In his short life, Bill Hicks extended that invitation and, more or less, it was accepted.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 15, 2011

Posthumous albums and now this film are securing his legacy and enduring influence.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 14, 2011

The movie's appeal extends to the manner of its construction; it's an almost hypnotic kind of hybrid animation in which hundreds of photographs of Hicks in various poses and at various stages in his life are grafted onto two-dimensional backgrounds.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 14, 2011

Recounts a bright-burning life while leaving us mostly in the dark.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 7, 2011

It's heavy on facts, but short on insight -- a surface-level look at a performer of extraordinary depth.

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Apr 7, 2011

Like Man In The Moon, American applies a thick gloss of reverence and sentimentality to the story of a comic pioneer who made his living challenging the kinds of neat, convenient, slickly packaged narratives presented here.

| Original Score: C | Apr 7, 2011

Hicks's shtick is so good and his life so ordinary that it's hard to escape the feeling that we might've been better off just watching a compilation of the groundbreaking funnyman's work.

| Apr 6, 2011

The vitriolic comedian's career gets a photo-animated documentary treatment which drowns out his voice with a chorus of friends and family.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 6, 2011

Hicks was like the stand-up comedian version of a five-tool baseball player. He could do it all.

| Original Score: B | Apr 5, 2011

The film is an honest celebration of an inventive and daring comedian, whose influence was profound.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 20, 2010

Harlock and Thomas have done their subject justice; you can understand, if not necessarily applaud, Hicks's pre-eminence among stand-up comics.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 14, 2010

A little too in love with its subject, but a treat for fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 13, 2010

Tells the story of comedian Bill Hicks' tragically short life through the eyes of those who lived it with him.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 13, 2010

Even those who shrug at his combative style of humour won't be able to deny that this is a model of detailed and distanced biographical filmmaking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 13, 2010