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

| Apr 25, 2023

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.

| Sep 12, 2018

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

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 19, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 4/6 | Dec 19, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 19, 2008

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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 19, 2008

Thompson must be looking down, or up, from his afterworld thinking: "The worst success is a failure to keep alive the spirit of offendedness and outrage."

| Dec 19, 2008

This soft-headed hagiography is a disappointment, and at least half an hour too long.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 19, 2008

This portrait rightly invites admiration for the man's influential talent, while provoking thoughts about the responsibilities of journalism. It's overlong but colourful anecdotes and a zippy 1960s/1970s soundtrack make it entertaining stuff.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 19, 2008

Gibney says the film took so much out of him that he limped into the Sundance Festival with a ruptured disc, a green liver and spots in his eyes that will not disappear. I hope he now thinks it worth the trouble. I'm pretty sure watchers will.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 19, 2008

Gonzo is an excellent reminder that Thompson was more than just a wild man. He was, at least for a time, a first-rate writer who covered his times and helped shape them.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 30, 2008

The worshipfulness obscures the sadder aspects of Thompson's life, which is perhaps why Gibney focuses on the writer's 1965-75 golden years.

| Original Score: B | Oct 18, 2008

But Gibney wisely tells much of the story in Thompson's own words, narrated by actor Johnny Depp, who played the writer in the movie version of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

| Original Score: A- | Oct 18, 2008

Too much time in this overly long film is spent on minutiae.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Though Thompson's long slide into irrelevance in the 80s and 90s is duly noted, most of the movie covers his glory days during the Vietnam era, when he was arguably the most exciting and important literary talent in America.

| Aug 8, 2008

Gonzo director Gibney frees himself from the heady topicality of his recent documentaries...and dives right down into the deep -- and dark -- end.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 18, 2008

[Director] Gibney assembles a wealth of Thompson memorabilia and first-person interviews for this often insightful and sometimes overly indulgent chronicle.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 18, 2008

An amused and affectionate look at the writer who formed a crucial link between the New Journalism of the 1960s and today's blogosphere.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 18, 2008

At its worst, the film takes a long detour into Thompson's admiration for an utterly banal 1974 Carter speech (The Powerful were sticking it to The People again) as a way to make us feel virtuous, political and leftish.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 16, 2008

Neatly balancing full-hearted celebration with evenhanded examination.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 11, 2008