Sick is a documentary about the late Bob Flanagan. Flanagan, who died in 1996, was a visual artist and writer who billed himself as a "supermasochist." Much of his art was built around the physical torture and mutilation he suffered (enjoyed?) at the hands of his longtime partner, Sheree Rose. His nipples, tongue and genitals were pierced. Some of his performance pieces involved his being cut, strangled and hanged. In one, he has a 10-penny nail driven through the glans of his penis.

If you're still reading, let me tell you that Sick does something quite remarkable. It makes us like and care about Bob Flanagan. Born with cystic fibrosis, the man was not supposed to live to age 10, much less age 43. He was in horrible pain his whole life and always under the psychic shadow of imminent death. He responded with startling humor. And his masochism was clearly an act of defiance. Fated to suffer and die young, he decided to make suffering into an art form and live four times as long as he was supposed to.