Having spent the past couple movie sessions with superheros, it was time to go back to something a little more sedate. For No Good Reason is an excellent documentary/biopic about Ralph Steadman, an English artist who looks like a quiet country gentleman, living in an old brick house in UK, but who has spend decades creating paintings and drawings that are really strident, disturbing and often violent and bloody and full of scathing social criticism. In a past decade, he was a friend and collaborator of Hunter S Thompson, having illustrated some of Thompson’s writing. You have probably seen his work but didn’t know who created it.
The movie consists of interviews done by Johnny Depp (a big fan of Steadman), has films of Steadman, Hunter Thompson and William S Burroughs, with them out on Thompson’s ranch shooting stuff, blowing up things and consuming staggering amounts of alcohol. It’s surprisingly interesting especially to see how Steadman creates his pictures, starting with random spatters of India ink, with paint and ink sprayed, spattered and abraded until something intelligible and generally troubling emerges. It’s really fascinating to see him work.
The movie is fun to watch, excellently composed and shot, not the usual poor quality cinematography that you see in documentaries. For fans of HS Thompson, it’s a chance to see a lot of footage of him being his Gonzo self. For beer drinkers in my part of the world, you might not know that Steadman is doing six-pack art and labels for all of the various Flying Dog beers that are made in Frederick, MD. Those labels are disturbing too. If you’re in the mood for a view of the very eccentric world of Steadman, this flick is well worth a view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MHEu6ZYOUM
