R | 1h 54min | Drama, Comedy, Satire, Biography | 13 July 2018 (USA)

Based in part on the memoir of the same name by John Callahan, writer and director Gus Van Sant’s sometimes overstylized “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” (“On Foot”) hits a few narrative bumps on its way to a triumphant third act, making this the filmmaker’s finest effort since “Good Will Hunting” in 1997.

A native of Portland, Oregon, the single-panel cartoonist John Callahan (Joaquin Phoenix) found his calling late in life and only after becoming a quadriplegic and recovering alcoholic. With two hands clutching a Flair pen, Callahan drew primitive panels that were decidedly conceived and executed in purposefully bad taste. By comparison, Callahan’s barbed black humor made Gary Larson’s “Far Side” come off looking as tame and safe as Bil Keane’s “Family Circus.”

One panel shows three lawmen in a desert standing over a wheelchair with one speaking the line that also serves as the film’s title. Other frequent subjects include house pets, religion, and alcoholism, but mostly they were of individuals or groups with physical disabilities. Needless to say, many people, most of whom had no physical disabilities, took great offense at Callahan’s work. This begs more than a few questions.

The first and most obvious: Should the physical condition of an artist have any bearing on how people judge his creations? Is it acceptable for a quadriplegic to make fun of himself and those like him with off-color observational humor? Van Sant doesn’t get around to these prickly and subjective issues until the third act, although many panels, some of them animated, are dotted throughout the film.

For the first 45 or so minutes, Van Sant’s movie more resembles a bebop jazz composition, which is aided greatly by an atypical score from composer Danny Elfman. Presented wildly out of sequence, this stretch covers the last few hazy, booze-fueled days prior to the car wreck that changed the 21-year-old Callahan’s life forever. In the years following the accident, he hit the bottle even harder, eventually bottoming out, before addressing his disease in group therapy.

Van Sant keeps things interesting during this period by employing some tricked-out visuals, including vertical elliptical screen panning and single passages of dialogue delivered in multiple locations over the space of decades.

The weakest link in the narrative is the time spent with the therapy group, which is overpopulated with too-easy stock characters (an overweight girl, the angry veteran, the fey senior guy, and the privileged housewife). The exception here is a slimmed-down and bearded Jonah Hill as Donnie, a wealthy trust fund baby, who hosts the meetings in his house, which could best be described as decorated in Liberace light.

Instead of the usual namby-pamby, there-there, treacle coating, Donnie speaks to his AA members (whom he lovingly refers to as “piglets”) with blunt, face-smacking directness. It is arguably the finest performance of Hill’s career.

Van Sant allows the story to breathe, never relying on the bells and whistles, and lets Phoenix strut his righteous stuff. “On Foot” has an organic and relaxed (not to be confused with safe) air.

For over an hour, we see the story go into the narrative meat grinder and finally get to taste the finished fire-grilled product, along with the peppers, onions, and mozzarella. Make no mistake, the narrative grinder is needed, but for an artist as conflicted, polarizing, and complex as Callahan, the final result demands further attention, and Van Sant ultimately delivers the goods.

A man never fully at peace with his many demons, Callahan finally finds his calling and a (maybe fictional) romantic connection. Played by Phoenix’s off-screen love interest, Rooney Mara, the Swedish therapist-turned-flight-attendant Annu may or may not even be real, but it makes no difference as none of the other characters fit the same bill. It’s worth mentioning that Mara also appeared in the below-the-radar “Mary Magdalene” as the title character alongside Phoenix who portrayed Jesus Christ.

Also worth noting was the heavy protest levied against the production from the New England-based Ruderman Family Foundation, which had major (largely uninformed) issues with Callahan being portrayed by Phoenix rather than a real-life disabled actor.

“On Foot” is the politically correct crowd’s worst possible nightmare and will send them into a nosedive, tailspin tizzy. A man disowned at birth by his mother drifts into a life of substance abuse and then becomes a quadriplegic, only to make a mockery of acceptable social decorum while finding roaring success as a member of the press within the very bastion of staunch Blue State territory.

The irony of this particular situation is thoroughly off the charts.

You can watch “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” on Vudu, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV.

‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot’
Director: Gus Van Sant
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, Jack Black
Running Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: July 13, 2018
Rating: 4 out of 5