‘Andre is an Idiot’ is a surprisingly sunny documentary about dying
Tony Benna’s film follows an ad man who dealt with his terminal diagnosis with humor.
Andre is an Idiot is the true story of a one-of-a-kind character, his fatal cancer diagnosis, and how he deals with his fate with cheer and humor. Most of the time, anyway.
Filmmaker Tony Benna spent a couple of years filming André Riccardi, a San Francisco-based advertising man who was diagnosed in his early 50s with stage 4 colon cancer. The “idiot” part, he admits, is that he waited years longer than he should have to get checked, despite some scary symptoms.
What it adds up to is a fascinating documentary character study that doubles as a PSA for finally getting that colonoscopy.
It reminded me a bit of The Tom Green Cancer Special, Tom Green’s MTV special after he was diagnosed with cancer, at the height of his fame in the late ‘90s.
As the end approaches, Andre finds it a bit harder to be cheerful, but he keeps up his good attitude all the way to the end.
We learn, very quickly, that Andre isn’t your usual cancer patient or documentary subject. He cracks more jokes than most, including having his proctologist saved in his phone as “Ass Doctor.”
He introduces himself, telling an embarrassing masturbation story.
And he fills in the rare backstory about how he and his Canadian-born wife first got married in a sham green card marriage while in relationships with other people, although the two eventually grew into a loving marriage.
One of the best documentaries of last year was the Oscar-nominated Come See Me in the Good Light, which was also about the film’s subject dealing with terminal cancer, but it had as different a tone as possible. Both films, though, are outstanding and tell the stories of compelling people facing the prospect of certain death, and doing so bravely.
An award winner at Sundance in 2025, Andre is an Idiot is rolling out in theaters throughout March.