Director Tony Benna joins the Crandell this Saturday. The film project began when André Ricciardi, a San Francisco ad man was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer—because he didn't get a colonoscopy.
April 25 | Chatham, NY | 7pm
Director Tony Benna joins the Crandell this Saturday via Zoom after the 7 pm screening of "André Is an Idiot," the documentary that won the Audience Award and the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
The film project began when André Ricciardi, a San Francisco ad man whose career included the claymation Ozzy Osbourne Lipton Brisk Iced Tea ads and the viral marketing for "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer—cancer he got because he didn't get a colonoscopy. His response was to call his friend and colleague Benna and ask him to make a comedy about it. The film mixes documentary footage with stop-motion animation and follows Ricciardi through a three-year journey that includes a trip to a radon mine in Montana, a serious inquiry into whether an Italian doctor could give him a head transplant, and a lot of time with his wife Janice, his two teenage daughters, his best friend Lee, and his therapist Peter. The title comes from his mother's reaction to the diagnosis: "What a fucking idiot."
The film follows Ricciardi from the moment he received his terminal colon cancer diagnosis through his passing. Benna intersperses André's laughing in the face of death with well-chosen comic stop-motion animations created by the aptly-named production company Flesh and Bones. Sight & Sound called it one of the most enjoyable films their reviewer had ever seen. The Roger Ebert site called it unlike any cancer documentary ever made. The movie will make you laugh, cry, and make an appointment for a colonoscopy.
Crandell Theatre, 48 Main St., Chatham, NY. Tickets and showtimes at crandelltheatre.org.
