| American: The Bill Hicks Story | | Print | |
| Saturday, 30 April 2011 09:30 |
| "American: The Bill Hicks Story" is playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center and is available on demand. By Alex Wilgus “I want my rock stars dead!” This might have been a better title for Paul Thomas and Matt Harlock’s biographical documentary “American: The Bill Hicks Story.” The speaker of these incendiary and ultimately poignant words is, of course, Bill Hicks, a shooting star comedian who rose quickly in the underground comedy scene, was denied fame by the media due to his uncompromising hatred of mainstream American culture and then died tragically of cancer at age 32. Before watching this film, my only knowledge of Hicks came from a two-minute clip of one of his comedy routines which, in itself, contained enough controversy to fuel several films. I assumed an account of this man’s life story would produce similar results, but “The Bill Hicks Story” didn’t soak me in the spice of Hicks’ stand-up act. Thomas and Harlock deserve credit for their unique visual style, since it takes a great deal of ingenuity to do something new with a biographical documentary. They wisely stay away from a sober Ken Burns approach or the History Channel-style of filming empty locations with sound and music over it (or worse: re-enactments). Instead, they compile photos of Hicks’ life and rotoscope them to create animated dioramas from the still frames. The result is like watching a pop-up-book, and it carries exactly the right tone of whimsy and caricature for recounting the life of a renegade comic. The animatics pull the audience through the story of Hicks’ life like a roller coaster, but once in a while the parade of moving pictures comes up with a dud. For instance, the composite images of Houston, New York and Los Angeles do little to recreate the landscape of '80s and '90s America, an environment that is central to Hicks’ identity. But these few moments are forgivable in light of the film’s swift pacing. Excitement is a difficult emotion to achieve in a retrospective documentary and a few spare missteps don’t derail the film’s visual momentum. Unfortunately, as the freshness of the graphics wore off, some latent dissatisfaction began to bubble to the surface of my consciousness until I had to admit to myself that in spite of all its graphical panache, I was not gleaning enough enjoyment or insight from the film. “American” puts Bill Hicks in a strangely detached and un-controversial light. It is hard to understand why a movie about a man who publicly called for the suicide of everybody in the marketing business (while repeating over and over that it was ‘not a joke’) wouldn’t be a meaty story, but “The Bill Hicks Story” has a hollow center due to a single stylistic choice: for whatever reason, all of the film’s narration and content is delivered by a group of roughly ten family members, colleagues and close friends. This choice left the film lacking in two key areas: scope and conflict. At one point a fellow comedian states, “People would walk out of his shows changed. Even if they didn’t admit it, they were changed a little bit.” An interview with one of these ‘changed’ fans might have at least colored in this statement, but “The Bill Hicks Story” features not a single fan. As far as I could tell, Hicks’ audience was just a laugh track punctuating his jokes. Why tell us when you could show us? There was an early attempt at showing how out of step Bill was with his parents and Southern Baptist upbringing, but the rebelliousness is superficial and lasts only through his teenage years. The only conflict I could detect was between an outspoken comic and a vague amalgam of the government, conservative Christians and the ignorant American populous that is never allowed to talk back. Without a more defined "enemy," Hicks appears to be ranting into midair. Even documentaries need drama, and the movie didn't need to present such a one-sided story about a controversial figure. If Hicks’ legacy and influence really is as deep and groundbreaking as the film claims it is, then I can’t help but feel that “American: The Bill Hicks Story” is just the prelude. The full account has yet to be made. |
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