Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Patricia Arquette
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Camila Morrone, Patricia Arquette, Elizabeth Lail, Ray Nicholson, Sean Penn
Gonzo Girl, the directorial debut of Patricia Arquette, is the latest in a growing line of alternative biopics that focus not on a famous figure but on a member of Joe Public who found themselves in their company at some point. Over the last decade or so we've had movies about plebs hanging out with Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Dylan Thomas, Gloria Grahame and Miles Davis, to name a few. Though the names have been changed, Gonzo Girl is adapted from the 2015 novel by Cheryl Della Pietra, who detailed her experiences working as an assistant to "gonzo" writer Hunter S. Thompson.
Della Pietra's stand-in here is Alley (Camila Morrone), a bookish, corduroy and black glasses-clad recent college graduate with aspirations of becoming a writer like her idol Walker Reade (Willem Dafoe). It's not until the closing credits that Gonzo Girl finally acknowledges that we've just watched a movie about Thompson, but Dafoe's sporting of Johnny Depp's wardrobe from Terry Gilliam's Thompson adaptation Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas leaves us in no doubt.
Alley might be a fan of Walker but she believes he hasn't written anything worthwhile in 15 years. At a reading of his work, Alley has the audacity to call out his bullshit, which catches the attention of Walker's veteran assistant and likely one-time lover Claudia (Arquette). No longer able to exert an influence on Walker herself, Claudia decides the forthright Alley might be just what's needed to spur the writer into getting stuck into his work again, and so hires Alley on the spot for the job.
You might think nothing would distract a horny old male writer from getting his work done more than the presence of a young woman with Camila Morrone's looks, and you'd be right. Travelling to Walker's compound, which seems eternally stuck in the '60s (the movie is set in 1992), Alley finds getting this old cokehead to sit down at his typewriter is like trying to get a mischievous cat to go out in the rain. Rather than his professional assistant, Alley becomes another member of Walker's entourage of hangers-on, which includes his ditzy young lover Devaney (Elizabeth Lail), a drug-dealing painter (Sean Penn, because of course Sean Penn is in a movie about Hunter S. Thompson) and young Hollywood star Larry (Ray Nicholson, presumably a stand-in for Depp).
Watching Walker's treatment of Alley through 21st century eyes, it's impossible not to view him as a sleazy, manipulative predator using his power over an attractive young woman. Given the film is directed by outspoken feminist Arquette and written by two women (Rebecca Thomas and Jessica Caldwell), it's surprising how easy it goes on Walker in this regard. Gonzo Girl certainly isn't hagiographic in its portrayal of Thompson but neither is it the MeToo takedown of a powerful white male you might expect. To its credit, Arquette's film tries to be true to its 1992 sensibilities but it's difficult to buy into Alley going along with some of her boss's demands, such as how he insists on dressing her in revealing outfits and licking garlic off her nipples. While Alley willingly embraces the never-ending flow of drugs Walker sends her way, we can't help but view this as the writer's way of controlling her, adopting the sort of tactics pimps use to keep sex workers in their thrall.
And yet while we initially view Walker as a beast and Alley as the young beauty trapped in his cave, the movie gradually flips our view of both characters. In Alley's company Walker starts to drop his insufferably exuberant facade, opening up about his past regrets. In Alley's view the words Walker speaks to her in confidence are far more compelling than anything he was written in the last decade. This leads her to secretly rewrite Walker's words, clandestinely sending them to Walker's publisher, who is grateful to accept anything if they believe it's come from the revered writer. It's at this point that the movie forces us to uncomfortably ask who is using whom in this messed up partnership, with Walker profiting from Alley's youth and beauty while she seizes the chance to have her work published, even if it's under another name.
Alley's co-opting of Walker's thoughts is by far the most interesting aspect of Gonzo Girl, but it's reduced to a subplot that leads to an anti-climactic resolution. The film is more concerned with submerging us in Walker's chaotic world, with an episodic structure largely based around Walker and Alley's experiences on a variety of drugs. Visually Arquette takes her cues from Gilliam's aforementioned cinematic adaptation of Thompson's words, all moving wallpaper and cartoon flowers blooming during acid trips.
The movie struggles to get to the heart of Walker, but that's forgivable given the character is based on someone as enigmatic as Thompson. But there's no excuse for Alley being so frustratingly blank. The story might be told from Alley's point of view, but Gonzo Girl is guilty of treating her in the same manner as her difficult employer, more interested in Morrone's beauty than Alley's inner life. Even if we find men like Walker to be irritating blowhards, it's Dafoe's magnetic performance that draws our attention here.
Gonzo Girl makes its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 12th.
