American: The Bill Hicks Story

American: The Bill Hicks Story opens at The Royal in Toronto in Friday, April 15th.



In every medium of art there is always at least one icon that departed the world too soon. The world quite possibly never got a chance to see the best that Plath, Basquiat, and Cobain had to offer, amongst many others. In the world of stand-up comedy, there was probably no greater wealth of untapped potential than Houston native Bill Hicks who passed away from cancer at age 32.

The new documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story chronicles the remarkably packed life of a man who some consider to be one of the best stand-up comics to ever come out of the US. While this film tells the story of Hicks' life very linearly and matter of factly (from interviews of those who knew him best), directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas have created an unnecessarily flashy film that sometimes dampens the impact of the film overall, especially in the film's first half.

American follows the intensely motivated Hicks from working as a high schooler performing sketches between classes to stand-up clubs. Hicks lived and breathed stand-up and would settle for nothing less than success. The film chronicles his early days when he thought he needed hallucinogenics and alcohol to bring out the bitterness a comedian needs to succeed to his later career when he sobered up and became a politically outspoken cult icon. The film does do a great job of fully illustrating just how a comedian works their personal lives into their act by giving reference points for some of his most famous routines.

Bill Hicks is a larger than life character who really did live life to the fullest, but the second half of the film which relies on footage from Hicks' act is the part that really cooks. The first half of the film, however, relies far too heavily on some pretty ugly and unconvincing motion graphics that incorporate archival photographs of the young Hicks. The people being interviewed have some genuinely interesting insights into Hicks' life, but visually the film nearly takes the viewer out of the story. Granted, the events being depicted and talked about were never filmed, but there was probably a better way of handling Hicks' early days than is done here. Despite it all, the man shines through, and in the end, that's all that really matters.

Rating (out of four stars): ***