Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - 20th August 2006

We went to see this on a Sunday morning, which made it all the more bizarre.

I'm guessing the Cornerhouse put this on to tie in with the Terry Gilliam visit a few weeks ago. As such comparisons between this and his latest film Tideland are inevitable. In fact, everything I found lacking in Tideland was present in Fear and Loathing. It was classic Gilliam through and through.

Hunter S. Thompson's drugged-up road trip provided a perfect partner to Gilliam's directorial style. The constantly moving and swaying camera (which was a main feature of Tideland) reinforced the sickening and confusing nature of the trip and the regular drug-induced hallucinations gave Gilliam a fantastic excuse to go into the surreal fantasy world he loves so well; the lizard scene in the bar was a perfect example of this.

Even though there was not much in the way of plot, I was transfixed by every single frame. This was partly due to Gilliam's aforementioned fantastic style, partly due to the increasingly hilariously bizarre nature of Duke and co's antics and partly due to Johnny Depp.

For the first few moments of the film it seemed Depp was portraying Big Brother winner Pete but from then on Depp was a perfect guide to the depraved world of Thompson. His constant commentary was occasionally difficult to follow but this didn't matter, the stream-of-consciousness ramblings just reinforced the sickeningly unstable plot, characters and camera work.

I left the cinema on Sunday feeling as if I'd just been on a two-hour drugs binge. Which can only be a good thing. 8.