The documentary programming at the Sundance Film Festival never fails to showcase some of the most unique, pathbreaking stories every year. This year, one of the breakout entries is André is an Idiot, a documentary that takes the viewer into the hilarious and life-affirming journey of one man as he documents his life in the wake of a colon cancer diagnosis. It is unlike any other film on cancer that you will ever see, told with superb style and a bracing wit. (Also read: Khartoum review: Hybrid, self-reflexive doc captures the power of alliance)
The premise
Tonny Benna's film revolves around André Ricciardi, a man with a lot of ideas. He starts the film with a rather worrisome anecdote from when he was a child and injured his private parts. Now, he is a middle-aged man who has colon cancer, which could have been avoided if he had listened to his good friend Lee and got a colonoscopy. But this is not a cautionary tale with André as a man dying of that one massive regret. It is quite the opposite, in its own unique and eccentric fashion.
As André informs, this film is his idea. It is a way of not only embracing these years but also a document of the life he has lived and the people he has loved and all the crazy ideas he has had all this while. André sits in front of the camera and talks about how he volunteered to marry Janice out of the blue, start a family and do well in advertising. These are delightful stories told by a man who sees life as it comes, whose wide-eyed and eccentric humour is infectious.
What works
It helps that André was a born storyteller who had a stellar screen presence. Benna lets these unfiltered stories take shape as they arrive, approaching them in an eccentric visual flourish which uses animation and re-enactment. This is a film that can feel a bit too full of itself, a little tied up with its subject to even attempt to ask the tougher questions. But that is also the point André wants to make. He wants to process his cancer through humour and heart and not let it control his actions.
{{/usCountry}}It helps that André was a born storyteller who had a stellar screen presence. Benna lets these unfiltered stories take shape as they arrive, approaching them in an eccentric visual flourish which uses animation and re-enactment. This is a film that can feel a bit too full of itself, a little tied up with its subject to even attempt to ask the tougher questions. But that is also the point André wants to make. He wants to process his cancer through humour and heart and not let it control his actions.
{{/usCountry}}Even though the film stays clear of any form of weepy sentiment, there is no escaping it. Even though André faces the horrific reality of getting chemotherapy and brushes it off, saying that he can bear it all, the viewer is witness to his body as it shrinks and swells around the liver. Janice is often the film's rational core, leading on to the inescapable reality with emotional transparency. André's relationship with life itself is a thing of utter joy and heartbreak. At the end of this documentary (which is handled excellently), I was thankful that I got to know him. Benna's film has a wonderful tonal clarity and is careful with its subjects; it never sidesteps one emotion to prioritize another. It is so profound yet so hilarious, so tender yet so utterly eccentric.
Santanu Das is covering Sundance Film Festival 2025 as part of the accredited press.
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