Alex Gibney’s “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” now playing at the Tivoli, provides an insightful biography of Thompson, author of “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72” and other treasures of American journalism. For baby boomers, it offers superb time travel through the tumultuous years of our coming of age. Younger viewers may glean new insights about their elders – and about a unique journalist who changed the course of American history. To all, it is highly recommended.

Most of “Gonzo” is interviews with those who knew him well, including two wives, a son, Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner, friends and, incredibly, right-winger Pat Buchanan. Narrated by Johnny Depp, it takes us mostly chronologically through Thompson’s remarkable life, from modest beginnings in Lexington, Ky., to his 2005 suicide at his residence near Aspen, Colo., and his star-studded funeral.

This portrait does not idealize the hard-drinking, hard-drugging, gun-obsessed Thompson, including huge wastes of potential even before his suicide. He could be mean, irresponsible and scornful of requirements for ordinary mortals, such as editors’ deadlines. However, it makes this viewer regret that Thompson is not with us at our current perilous hour. Surely we need his incisive satire now more than ever.

For those who have never read Thompson, this biography captures his viewpoint and his causes, if not his brilliant and sometimes fantasy-laden prose, occasionally read aloud by Johnny Depp. Thompson was a participatory journalist who thought conventional “objective” journalism simply served the status quo. Never a cynic, he did find politicians he admired, especially Robert Kennedy, George McGovern (whose presidential campaign he covered) and Jimmy Carter. He loathed Hubert Humphrey and Ed Muskie, whom he blamed for Richard Daley’s brutality to demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic convention. Above all, he loathed Richard Nixon. This portrait shares his take on things, dissolving from an image of Nixon to one of George W. Bush and making direct parallels between Vietnam and Iraq.

“Gonzo” includes amazing “home movies” and other video clips of Thompson over decades, including an appearance on “What’s My Line?” Music also takes us over the decades, beginning with San Francisco’s Haight scene from the mid-’60s. We glimpse the aforementioned political figures along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Vietnam and more.

The term “gonzo” was coined by Thompson to describe his unique approach to journalism. The viewer will find it amply demonstrated in “Gonzo,” an important piece of cultural and political history through the life and work of a real American original.

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