By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on June 7, 2025)

Mother of God, man…another film about Hunter S. Thompson?! Well yes…and no. Because you see, the adrenochrome-addled gonzo journalist pecking away at a bullet-riddled typewriter in Patricia Arquette’s dramedy is named “Walker Reade” (Willem Dafoe). A starry-eyed super-fan and aspiring writer named Alley (Camila Morrone) lucks into a gig as Reade’s writing assistant.

Reade’s muse has gone fallow; he has writer’s block and is under deadline pressure from his publisher to deliver a new book. While she takes initial warnings from his long-time, world-weary live-in assistant (played by Arquette) with a grain of salt, Alley soon learns that “writing assistant”  could mean anything from “babysitter” to “caregiver”.

As one might expect, there are echoes here of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Where the Buffalo Roam (and yes, there is a requisite “first acid trip” escapade). That said, the film vibes more like a hybrid of All About Eve and Get Him to the Greek. Jessica Caldwell and Rebecca Thomas adapted the screenplay from Cheryl Della Pietra’s eponymous novel (which the author based on her real-life stint as Hunter S. Thompson’s assistant).

While at times a bit uneven in tone,  Arquette’s directorial debut is,for the most part, an enjoyable romp for Hunter S. Thompson fans. Morrone gives an impressive performance, and Dafoe portrays Hunter  with a typically idiosyncratic flourish (sans the somewhat self-conscious mannerisms that Bill Murray and Johnny Depp deployed in their characterizations).