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

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Magnolia Pictures)

Alex Gibney has had his hand in some of the best recent documentaries on politics and hot button issues. Working as producer, writer and/or director, Gibney has been involved in The Trials of Henry Kissinger, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Who Killed the Electric Car?, No End in Sight, and Taxi to the Dark Side. Gibney's latest documentary is Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. This time out, Gibney serves as writer, director, and producer as he paints a portrait of the iconoclastic journalist and author who thought -- and proved -- that writers could be like rock stars.

Film Club Free Screening: Gonzo

The KPBS Film Club is having a free screening of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson (Magnolia Pictures)

Landmark Theatres, the KPBS Film Club of the Air and Magnolia Pictures are holding a special advance screening of Alex Gibney's new documentary
Gonzo: The Life and Works of Hunter S. Thompson on Thursday June 26 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas. Click here for your chance to get free passes to Gonzo.

From Oscar-wining director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and producer Graydon Carter (Surfwise, The Kid Stays in the Picture) comes a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. A fast moving, wildly entertaining documentary with an iconic soundtrack, the film addresses the major touchstones in Thompson's life-his intense and ill fated relationship with the Hell's Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, and much more. Narrated by Johnny Depp. We have a limited supply of tickets so don't wait to request yours.

Dinner and a Movie

Big Night kicks off a new film series combining dinner and a movie. (Samuel Goldwyn)

A good meal and a good movie... That's hard to beat. Other venues have tried matching up meals and movies. The latest one to venture into this tasty terrain is the Oceanside Museum of Art, which introduces its Culinary Cinema Series this weekend. Their plan is to pair food themed films with an appropriate menu. Kicking off the series on May 3 at 7:00 pm is the Stanley Tucci-Campbell Scott restaurant comedy Big Night. The story concerns two Italian brothers (Stanley Tucci and Tony Shaloub) determined to make it big in the restaurant business. But first they have to beat the establishment across the street that's serving up some stiff competition. Hoping to complement the savory onscreen courses will be chef Carol Blomstrom, owner of Lotsa Pasta in Pacific Beach, who will prepare Timpano, a dish cooked for hours in a large pot lined with pastry and filled with layers of roasted vegetables, meatballs, sausage, herbs, and sauces. Mmmmm.  Call the museum at 760-435-3721 for the complete menu, pricing and information. Thinking about food reminds me of the list I made for Thanksgiving about the best in culinary cinema. Read on if you're hungry for some tasty movie morsels, and maybe some of these will be included in the Oceanside film series. Wonder if Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, in which a pair of pot-heads get the munchies for those famous little White Castle burgers, is on the menu?

Midnight Movie: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp on the road to Vegas in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Universal)

Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (playing April 25 and 26 at midnight at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters) came after Twelve Monkeys and just before Gilliam attempted to tilt windmills (his attempt to bring Don Quixote to the screen with Johnny Depp failed). I couldn't find my review for the film from when it came out in 1998 but I remember loving it despite its flaws.

The movie is based on the semi-autobiographical memoirs of gonzo journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson's roman a clef follows a journalist not unlike himself whose name is Raoul Duke (an almost unrecognizable Johnny Depp) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (a heavily beefed up Benicio Del Toro) as they travel to Las Vegas in search of drugs, women and the American Dream. The tale mirrors a pair of Thompson's own trips to Vegas with an overweight Samoan lawyer named Oscar Zeta Acosta. His intent is to cover a motor cycle race, but his professional duties quickly fall by the wayside.

The pair's psychedelic, drug-induced weekend provides a metaphor for America adrift after the sixties. Duke, Gonzo and the film move in a permanent drug haze, and former Monty Pythonite Gilliam is just the right director to visualize that on the screen. The sense of disorientation and surrealism feels first-hand as if we were inside the heads of these characters. We're not being shown a couple of doped up guys, we're made to feel like one of them and it's a freaky, mind-bending experience. Depp and De Toro are amazing, both losing themselves in the bizarrely caricatured performances they deliver.

Enjoy this one on the big screen, and seeing it at midnight when your mind might be a little tired and fuzzy might make the experience all the better.

Midnight Movies Return

TRON kicks off a new season of midnight movies at Landmark (Disney)

Brad Hesselbrock ran Landmark's Midnight Movies for years. But he has moved on and out of San Diego. A moment of silence in appreciation for all his efforts... But the series continues with a best of series of films playing Friday and Saturday nights at midnight at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters. Kicking off this latest Midnight Madness is 1982's TRON, starring a young Jeff Bridges, the perpetually (and delightfully) constipated David Warner, and Bruce Boxleitner (remember him?!) The Disney film involves a hacker that's literally abducted into  a computer and coerced into partaking in gladiatorial games. His only hope lies in the computer's secutiry program. The film boasted what was then state of the art effects technology. Now the film looks rather quaint. But it seems like a good warm up to the retro looking Speed Racer that will be coming out shortly. Each weekend there will be trivia contests with prizes supplied by the good folks at Mysterious Galaxy, Citizen Video, Sobering Conclusion, and Lloyd St. Rockers. Hungry Hank from Sobering Conclusions has leaked info about a particularly cool prize for Johnny Depp fans at the Fear and Loathing screening. So brush up on your Depp trivia. Here's the schedule. I'll post reminders each week for what's playing.

April 11 and 12: TRON
April 18 and 19: Uncut European Version of Terry Gilliam's Brazil
April 25 and 26: Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro in Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
May 2 and 3: A bit of the ultraviolence with Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange
May 9 and 10: Jeff Bridges is The Dude in the Coens' The Big Lebowski
May 16 and 17: Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction

Enjoy!

Golden Globe Winners

The Broadcast Film Critics' Critics' Award got dispensation from the Writers' Guild and got to have a ceremony with celebrities. But tonight, in what may be a precursor to what the Oscars will be like if the writers' strike continues, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) held a thirty minute press conference rather than a three-hour ceremony to present its annual Golden Globe Award. Presenters from nightly entertainment news TV shows tried to maintain an awkward balance between showing support for the striking writers and paying respect to the HFPA that was putting on the event.

Atonement won the top award for Best Drama but lost out in most other categories. Juno got shut out. Sweeney Todd, benefiting from the separation of musical/Comedy from drama picked up awards for Best Musical and Best Actor for Johnny Depp. And there was no suprise when Daniel Day Lewis and Julie Christie took top drama acting awards for There Will Be Blood and Away From Her, respectively. Cable once again beat out the network for most of the TV awards. But no one was there to accept awards or looked shocked when they were passed over, and some of the smaller films that won may not get the bump at the box office with this press conference format.

Sweeney Todd

Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd (Paramount)

In the cutthroat battle for audiences during the crowded weekend before Christmas, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (opening December 21 throughout San Diego) wields a distinct advantage. Not only does its main character slice and dice like no one else, but the film also reunites the dream team of director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp. Together they have delivered such delicious treats as Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Corpse Bride. Now they collaborate again to bring the 1979 Broadway musical Sweeney Todd to the big screen.

Sweeney Todd, famed for slicing the throats of his customers and disposing of the corpses in meat pies, was thought to be nothing more than an urban myth, a British boogeyman. But back in 1993 British author Peter Haining did some extensive research and claims that there really was a mad barber who employed a trapdoor and straight razor to kill and rob his customers, and most of the victims did end up as filling for meat pies. Whether Todd really existed or not, is not really important. But the idea of the murderous barber has certainly captured the imagination of writers and audiences for more than a century, beginning with tales in Penny Dreadfuls, continuing on in two silent movies and more recently in a number of TV movies.