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Bill Hicks. Whether that name is familiar or not, he's generally credited with being one of the best stand-up comedians ever. His stand-up tended towards attacking what he perceived as social ills, especially people's ostensibly backwards attitudes towards drugs, religion - the whole world, really. Never really gaining widespread popularity in his native America, his sudden death from cancer at the age of 32 did not cause much of a shock, yet in the years since his passing he has left behind an impressive comedic legacy and influenced countless others. American is basically a documentary about Hicks, drawing on interviews conducted with the ten people closest to Hicks - his family, his friends and his colleagues at the Houston comedy club where Hicks began his career.
As some of you probably know, I've been a fan of Hicks for the past few years now. I own albums, DVDs, know several of his routines word for word - but I didn't think I was going to let that cloud my judgment of American. Its unorthodox method of telling Hicks' story - a sort of cut-and-paste animation that involves taking cut-out photographs of people and animating them against new backgrounds - is initially a point in the film's favour, though it can and does come across as gimmicky in some areas. Sometimes it works surprisingly well, most noticeably in a sequence depicting an acid trip. It's either the sort of style that will prove distracting all the way through or grows on you. Myself, I opt towards the latter opinion.
Content-wise, it's all there. I'm familiar with most of Hicks' life story and have experienced a lot of his material in one form or another, but the inclusion of several home-video performances proved an unusual insight. The film doesn't completely settle into blind worship of Hicks either, even dedicating screen-time to exploring his substance abuse breakdown and the toll it wrought (one of the few aspects of Hicks' life I didn't know much about). This leads me to wonder if this film is more for people who are already familiar with Hicks or for people who know next to nothing about him. It seems to be the former, given the relative lack of stand-up featured in the film. There are plenty of routines that cover the range of Hicks' material - from the seemingly trivial riffs about pop stars and smoking all the way through to his most confrontational material about his hopes and fears for humanity (the latter of which proved too unpopular with the general public, thus leaving him an underground figure). American isn't really a primer on Hicks' comedy, which is why any prolonged emphasis on the stand-up itself seems to jar with the heavily animated biopic nature of the rest of the film.
So, do I recommend this? It's a competently made documentary with an unusual angle in the animation, but whether or not it would be of interest to anyone outside of Hicks' fanbase is a tough call. Hicks' story has a rockstar vibe to it that proves consistently (if not overwhelmingly) interesting that means the uninitiated will definitely get something out of this - especially if it serves as an introduction to Hicks' comedy. However, I daresay that it's the fans that'll get the most out of this. I know I did.
AMERICAN: THE BILL HICKS STORY
(Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, 2009)
(Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, 2009)
Bill Hicks. Whether that name is familiar or not, he's generally credited with being one of the best stand-up comedians ever. His stand-up tended towards attacking what he perceived as social ills, especially people's ostensibly backwards attitudes towards drugs, religion - the whole world, really. Never really gaining widespread popularity in his native America, his sudden death from cancer at the age of 32 did not cause much of a shock, yet in the years since his passing he has left behind an impressive comedic legacy and influenced countless others. American is basically a documentary about Hicks, drawing on interviews conducted with the ten people closest to Hicks - his family, his friends and his colleagues at the Houston comedy club where Hicks began his career.
As some of you probably know, I've been a fan of Hicks for the past few years now. I own albums, DVDs, know several of his routines word for word - but I didn't think I was going to let that cloud my judgment of American. Its unorthodox method of telling Hicks' story - a sort of cut-and-paste animation that involves taking cut-out photographs of people and animating them against new backgrounds - is initially a point in the film's favour, though it can and does come across as gimmicky in some areas. Sometimes it works surprisingly well, most noticeably in a sequence depicting an acid trip. It's either the sort of style that will prove distracting all the way through or grows on you. Myself, I opt towards the latter opinion.
Content-wise, it's all there. I'm familiar with most of Hicks' life story and have experienced a lot of his material in one form or another, but the inclusion of several home-video performances proved an unusual insight. The film doesn't completely settle into blind worship of Hicks either, even dedicating screen-time to exploring his substance abuse breakdown and the toll it wrought (one of the few aspects of Hicks' life I didn't know much about). This leads me to wonder if this film is more for people who are already familiar with Hicks or for people who know next to nothing about him. It seems to be the former, given the relative lack of stand-up featured in the film. There are plenty of routines that cover the range of Hicks' material - from the seemingly trivial riffs about pop stars and smoking all the way through to his most confrontational material about his hopes and fears for humanity (the latter of which proved too unpopular with the general public, thus leaving him an underground figure). American isn't really a primer on Hicks' comedy, which is why any prolonged emphasis on the stand-up itself seems to jar with the heavily animated biopic nature of the rest of the film.
So, do I recommend this? It's a competently made documentary with an unusual angle in the animation, but whether or not it would be of interest to anyone outside of Hicks' fanbase is a tough call. Hicks' story has a rockstar vibe to it that proves consistently (if not overwhelmingly) interesting that means the uninitiated will definitely get something out of this - especially if it serves as an introduction to Hicks' comedy. However, I daresay that it's the fans that'll get the most out of this. I know I did.