Ralph Steadman was an English cartoonist working freelance for Rolling Stone, Punch and other magazines when he got a phonecall offering him a gig covering the Kentucky Derby with Hunter S. Thompson. The resultant article and it’s grotesque caricatures led to a legendary series of articles and a friendship that, ultimately, turned sour between the two.

For No Good Reason charts the relationship between the two, the creation of gonzo journalism, how they worked together, how they argued, reconciled and argued again. It’s unfortunate that there is such a focus on Thompson, since Steadman himself is a very interesting man, but that was Thompson’s way, always drawing attention to himself. An absolutely fascinating portrait of an artist at different points of his career, broken up with interviews with Terry Gilliam and Jann Wenner (Rolling Stone publisher) (amongst others) and stories about selling tickets to the Thriller in Manilla for weed, attempts to build a flying machine and how they once started a fire in a boat race, set to an amazing soundtrack.

Starring Cast. Johnny Depp as Himself. Terry Gilliam as Himself. Richard E. Grant as Himself. Hunter S. Thompson as Himself
Recommended for anyone interested in journalism, art or politics. Which should be everyone.

Donal O’connor

Shown at this year’s TIFF13 : Toronto International Film Festival.