Directed by Matt Harlock, Paul Thomas 15A cert,IFI/Screen, Dublin, 103 min

WHERE HAS this been hiding?

It remains difficult to sneak documentaries into cinemas, but down through the years – think of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy – films about stand-up comics have played reasonably well. Now the growing cult status of the late Bill Hicks, a left-wing Texan comic, possessed of unparalleled righteous fury, and you really do wonder why nobody has thought of this before.

Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, two English film-makers, have dug up some interesting footage for their unashamedly fawning study of Hicks’s life and career. Featuring touching contributions from his mother, a conservative Christian, the film talks us through Bill’s progress from teenage stand-up provocateur through confused substance abuser to the coiled fulminator who won over crowds with his rants against (as he saw it) his homeland’s ignorance and arrogance. Along the way there is a dubious acid experience and much pondering of lost potential.

As a record of a brief, extraordinary career (Hicks died of cancer in 1994) the film will prove invaluable to comedy archivists. The directors have trawled through the family’s shoeboxes and unearthed much previously unseen footage of Bill in full rhetorical flow.

All that noted, it must be acknowledged that Americandoes not go down as smoothly as it should. The quirky animations (modelled on those in The Kid Stays in the Picture) are depressingly crude, the unremitting music profoundly irritating, and the lack of contributions from those outside Hicks's immediate circle somewhat baffling.

Moreover, the excerpts from Hick’s act confirm – for this writer at least – that, while usually correct in his conclusions, the comic too often forgot to season the material with worthwhile jokes.

Still, one must acknowledge that most stand-up fans do not share this view. Bill Hicks completists will view Americanas essential.