Sundance (Online) Film Festival #6 (Final): Andre Is An Idiot (2025)
A documentary as hilarious as it is devastating.
Andre Is An Idiot marks the end of my experience for the online portion of Sundance 2025 and was a perfect way to end the festival by being a highly uplifting way of looking at life in spite of the dark circumstances it may throw at you.
From a writing standpoint, there was a ton of thought put into making this documentary feel like a perfect celebration of Andre Ricciardi (a man who works as an advertising executive) and the legacy that he left behind. Ricciardi is a person who always manages to find the humor within the worst of situations and this documentary spectacularly highlights that through how he handles living a life in which he becomes diagnosed with cancer after not having a colonoscopy. Therefore, while it never shies away from all the pain, suffering, & depression that comes with living through such a life-threatening illness, Andre Is An Idiot’s most prominent asset is how it highlights Andre’s positivity & personality in the midst of it all. Sure some of the humor may come off as a bit juvenile to some people, but I feel like it was an important aspect of his personality to explore because of how inspiringly he implements said humor into a situation of this aura (which is illustrated lovingly throughout the course of the documentary). It makes for a documentary with a beautifully delivered message that ties into the values of life and how you should live it to the fullest no matter how much of an emotional or psychological toll it can take on you.
This leads me into my thoughts on the documentary’s direction from Anthony Benna, which I found to be incredible the entire way through. He collaborated a lot with Andre (which he talked about in his Q&A after the documentary finished) in order to capture his spirit & temperament and you definitely notice that throughout the runtime. The combination of humor & tragedy is organically mixed together to make for a perfectly balanced tone that presents the documentary as one with just as flamboyant hilarity as there is penetrating calamity. In the end, however, it is a documentary that leaves you feeling hopeful & making you want to think about everything positive in your life and making use of every iota of it moving forward. Benna also plays around with the form of the documentary a bit through its inclusion of stop-motion animated, which I thought added a ton of versatility to its already impressive presentation (special shoutout to the editing by Parker Laramie). It felt natural to the structure of the documentary and embodies Andre’s wit and sense of humor with plenty of finesse.
I apologize if this review is more on the shorter side of things, but I feel like they perfectly sum up my thoughts on Andre Is An Idiot. It is such an exquisitely put together documentary that contains a ton of character and elegance in its presentation while also leaving the audience with a feeling of joy & love for the world as a whole in spite of the misadventures that can come from it. Definitely a phenomenal documentary and a wonderful way to end off my experience with Sundance 2025!
And that is it for today’s review! Do be on the lookout for more Sundance 2025 coverage throughout these next few days! See you all again next time!
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