Gonzo Girl Premieres Next Month
Hunter Thompson-inspired film gets its US premier in June.
Many of you will remember the buzz around a 2023 film starring Willem Defoe as Hunter S. Thompson… Well, technically he’s not Hunter S. Thompson, but rather Walker Reade, a washed-up Gonzo journalist who hires a young woman as his assistant.
The film is based on a book by Cheryl Della Pietra, who briefly worked as Thompson’s assistant and whilst it is—presumably for legal reasons—called “a novel,” the book appears to be autobiographical. The film also seems to make little attempt to hide the fact that Defoe’s character is in fact just Hunter Thompson by another name. (Or maybe it’s another Gonzo journalist who uses a cigarette holder, wears aviator sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts, and has an affinity for firearms and acid…)
Though you may remember the hype and the photos of Defoe in his Gonzo getup, you might well be wondering, “What the hell ever happened to that film? Why didn’t I see it?” Well, that’s because it was shown only once: at the Toronto Film Festival in 2023.
It is unclear why exactly Gonzo Girl was not released; however, the reception seems to have been a little less than enthusiastic and it seems no distributor was willing to pick it up. About six months ago, I wrote this article asking what the hell had happened. I wrote:
It sounds like—from what I see on the internet—the film did not impress anyone enough to find a distributor. In spite of a famous lead actor and a famous director (well, a famous actress who’s turned to directing) and a great concept for a film, no one felt it was financially viable. It was made, finished, premiered, and then just forgotten about.
Indeed, even if the movie is garbage, I still want to see it and especially Defoe’s version of Thompson. The public deserves the chance to pass judgment. How does Defoe’s version stack up against Bill Murray’s and Johnny Depp’s efforts? It seems criminal that we are not able to find out.
Ok, so maybe the film is utterly terrible. But hell, we fans of Thompson S. Thompson have endured some weak adaptations of his life and work before. We are easy people to please. We always manage to find some enjoyment in them. We should be able to do the same again with Gonzo Girl. God help us, we even endured the cinematic dog turd on a stick that was Fear and Loathing in Aspen.
The good news is that Gonzo Girl will be shown at the Tribeca Festival in June 2025. That will be the movie’s first US showing and I sincerely hope that it leads to a distributor finally taking it on. Even if it ends up on some crappy streaming app, it will be better than nothing. But then again, Thompson’s fans have gotten pretty good at coping with disappointment. How long have we been waiting for the third letter collection…?