The story of Bill Hicks is one that deserves to be told, and American manages to succeed with that aspect. However, the use of Tom Goes to the Mayor-style animation style was incredibly grating. It wasn't until it allowed the stand-up to speak for itself that I managed stay interested. I guess I would have preferred to watch his stand-up, or listen to his albums.

It's all tightpacked with praise upon praise which is an annoyance in a biopic for me. Also it is decent as a character study and made me think about the nature of stand up as a medium.

Not a bad look into Bill Hicks by any means. That's all it tries to be, except they use an interesting (though sometimes off-putting) visual style. A good documentary for a brilliant comedian.

I don't know why I care now for this man's comedy and story. But the film made me shed a tear for him.

Dissapointing documentary that lacks the bite, snarl and creative intelligence that made Bill Hick's comedy so unique.

"The vitriolic comedian's career gets a photo-animated documentary treatment which drowns out his voice with a chorus of friends and family." - Bill Weber

Not one of the great movies but one of the great stories.

Bio-pics are rarely to my taste, and bio-docs are usually quite trite, this one being no exception.. It does, however, employ some interesting techniques and most certainly have directorial qualities far superior to others of the sort.. It's never diminishing or (super)idolizing of the genius, that was Bill Hicks, but is only a must-see for aficionados or people interested in his background - otherwise just stick to his brilliant routines

Good because of the man, not the filmmaking. It's just the straightforward story of his life, nothing creative except for some of the visual techniques. It seemed like they wanted me to care about the man, I wanted to care about the ideas.

The animated approach is suited to this doco, putting the focus on the journey rather than just talking heads, and puts clever use to the archive of photos and video footage of Hicks to almost put us in his shoes as he rose to fame (but with the intention to actually say something) and gives blunt explanations to the many reasons for his collected, but brash and aggressive behaviour on-stage.

Excellent. Once you get past the initial weirdness of the animated presentation this really hits home. A heart ripping documentary about a truly brilliant comic and a genius. Bill Hicks stirs you up and it is in equal measures hilarious and terrifying. His death is a crime against humanity. One of the most clear sighted men who ever lived.

Brilliant comedian, average documentary.

Well made piece... lots of background information given by family and friends about this great comedian... one of the greatest....

Bill Hicks was in effect a stirrer - but a thinking one at that - so what you get is a melting pot of different emotional responses to his antics. I, for one, enjoyed the majority of his words on stage and so I went to see this biographical documentary out an interest to learn a bit more about his life and hopefully gain a little insight into his world. For the most part it was enjoyable and by the end of it I felt we'd explored some guys life with the option to revere that or not on you...

This movie really sucks. Bill Hicks was a good stand up, but if you're familiar with his work there's really nothing in this but boring biographical data.

Go read AMERICAN SCREAM instead.

Too many transitions. Felt like watching a very long bad tv special. It's a shame, because it told a good story of a brilliant man.

Excellent.