“For No Good Reason” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:29, two and a half stars out of four.

Ralph Steadman doesn’t look like the sort of man who has nightmares. An almost cuddly-looking elderly British man, Steadman looks like he should be teaching calculus or running a bookshop in the West End.

But out of his fingers have poured some truly nightmarish visions. Steadman was an illustrator for Rolling Stone for many years, creating grotesque images of Richard Nixon and others. These weren’t mere caricatures — the moral darkness that Steadman sees in his subjects seems to erupt out from within, distorting their features into gargoyles of fear, rage and greed.

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