Gonzo Gets It

There’s a “fascinating history lesson” in the documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson, “a lively collage of interviews and found materials,” writes A. O. Scott in the New York Times. The film cements the journalist's “place in the great American parade of cranks, renegades and sages,” Scott adds. It's “all you could wish for in a doc about the man,” notes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times.

The “mesmerizing” film is narrated “with just the right mix of awe and impertinence,” writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. Still, “there was one subject I found conspicuously missing: the fact of the man's misery,” says Ebert. “It leaves you wondering: how was it that so many people liked this man who does not seem to have liked himself?” (More Hunter S. Thompson stories.)