Two drug-addled documentaries at the New Zealand International Film Festivals. By CALEB STARRENBURG.

AN UNPREDICTABLY conventional documentary, and thus entirely appropriate, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson examines the bull-in-China-shop literary output of a mythical and rabble-rousing American journalist. Director Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side – the latter also screening at this Festival) uses archived footage, talking heads, narration and reenactments to form a fractured overview of Thompson’s enigmatic life – and like his writing looks between the lines to sort fact from fiction. The film explains Thompson, as a young journalist, would type out The Great Gatsby word for word, determined to capture Fitzgerald’s furious vision of the American dream. And Gonzo is at its most gripping when examining Hunter’s belligerent assault on the absurdity of the political system. The film travels a more familiar path when tracking the story of Hunter’s decline: the tragically clichéd tale of a self-medicating author imprisoned by his own fame.

Thompson first gained national recognition for his expose of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang. However, it was not until his drug-addled writing for Rolling Stone – including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail – that his so-called process of gonzo journalism was born. Gibney’s film is, in many ways, a portrait of the socio-political milieu of the 1960s and 1970s that enabled the birth of Hunter’s journalist style – and he forcefully suggests Hunter’s spirited critiques are missing from the current era of cable news. This theme resonates when the film quotes a piece written by Hunter on September 12, 2001: “The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for peace in our time, in the United States or any other country.” Watching Gonzo, it’s hard to like Thompson much: an eternally drunk, abusive and self-indulgent caricature. It’s even harder not to be dazzled by the insight and beauty of his genre-defining journalism.

Chris Bell’s Bigger, Stronger, Faster* might just be the most entertaining honest documentary at this year’s Festival. Applying the Roger and Me school of filmmaking to the issue of steroid use, the film transcends its immediate subject matter to explore a culture’s obsession with body image and the side effects of America’s win-at-all-costs mentality. It’s difficult not to admire a film that opens with footage of Hulk Hogan defeating his nemesis the Iron Sheik – an obvious allegory for American cultural dominance – followed by the documentary’s director and protagonist Bell revealing his disillusionment at learning his childhood idol took steroids. With surprising candor the filmmaker discloses feelings of inadequacy growing up a “fat, pale kid” in upstate New York and his subsequent use of performance enhancers.

While Bell no longer takes illegal supplements, his brothers ‘Mad Dog’ and ‘Smelly’ do. Bell uses this as a launching pad to examine the documentary’s central question: is he crazy not to be on the juice? Along the way the film reveals inconclusive medial research on their side effects, as well as political motivations and a moral-panic surrounding their demonisation. The documentary also ponders what constitutes an illegal performance enhancer? Is sleeping in an altitude chamber cheating? Why wasn’t Tiger Wood’s eye surgery to improve his vision greeted with outrage? The film almost suggests it’s not a matter of who is cheating, but who isn’t. We watch as Senator Joesph Biden denounces performance-enhancers as un-American – but, asks Bell, what does that mean when everybody from amateur and professional sports stars, to Hollywood action heroes, Californian governors and the U.S. military are current of former users? Although borrowing heavily from Moore and Spurlock – there are the comical stunts, one-sided interviews, ambushes and potentially disingenuous facts – Bell is a more affable and self-effacing character than the former directors, and for the most part manages to avoid self-righteous grandstanding by creating a debate on steroids that is otherwise wholly lacking. Bigger, Stronger, Faster* is a documentary that’s intimate, charming and thought provoking in equal measure.

See also:
» Desperate Measures: Bigger, Stronger, Faster*; The King of Kong