Movie Review: André Is an Idiot

As Benjamin Franklin wrote in a 1789 letter, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” How we choose to deal with those inevitabilities is up to us. For the fiercely intelligent and wildly imaginative ad creator André Ricciardi it’s an opportunity to do some good, for himself, his loved ones, and the greater populace as a whole by turning his final years into a documentary with the help of director Tony Benna. The result is like no other documentary you’ve probably ever seen, and certainly not one that is focused on so morbid a topic.

The movie begins by walking us through André’s life, touching on his childhood and his eventual career in advertising, but the biggest focus of these early sections is how he met his eventual wife and mother to his children Janice. It is quickly apparent that nothing about André would fit into anyone’s definition of “normal”, and so it is only fitting that their romance isn’t either. But the immense affection they both feel for each other is plain to see, and it’s hard not to find their story touching.

We also learn that his best friend Lee Einhorn once suggested they should both go to get their colonoscopies together, exactly the sort of odd but strangely sensible suggestion one comes to expect from the people in this film. It actually sounds like something that André would be game for, but for whatever reason he declines. When he finally does get one on his own over a year later, he learns that he has stage four cancer, and that if he had simply gone with Lee on that unusual outing, he likely would have been able to beat it.

So, André takes that harsh life lesson and decides to do something with it. He returns to the ad agency where he built his career and enlists them to craft a campaign reminding people to get timely colonoscopies and begins filming this documentary, using it to work out some of his own thoughts, give his family something to remember him by, and further his aim of raising awareness. It’s a noble goal that proves highly effective due to how unexpectedly entertaining this movie actually is.

André comes off as the sort of person that in reality you will either love or hate, but on camera he is fascinating to watch, offering deeply philosophical thoughts one moment and clever comedy the next. That this movie is so frequently funny might be its biggest surprise. I would feel safe saying that you will probably never laugh at another documentary about death as you will watching André Is an Idiot.

As his condition worsens and the treatments start working, the camera doesn’t shy away from the reality of what is happening. It can be painful to see and is a far cry from the endearing and whimsical stop-motion animation segments used to convey some of the other more sensitive moments earlier in the film. By this point, we are so involved in André’s story that we feel as if we really know him, making it impossible to fight back tears, especially for anyone who has dealt with the loss of a loved one to disease before.

While his choice to skip that colonoscopy could be described as idiotic, André himself is clearly not an idiot, and this exceptional film is proof of that. Every bit as informational as a more traditional documentary, but inventive, funny, cathartic, and touching in ways that few are, this is an unforgettable experience, every bit as likely to save lives as it is to entertain. ★★★★★