Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Directed by: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro
Based on a book of the same name.

Two guys travel and a go through a series of experiences as they trip on different kinds of psychedelics and drugs. This film is essentially a trip, although it's an equivalent of getting high on multiple drugs one after the other. There is mundane, something interesting, absurdity and then lunacy. This film is full on lunacy for 90% of it. Absurdity or lunacy can be best appreciated when it's put beside something mundane. This film doesn't has any of that. It's outright lunatic from the first frame to the last, which is why after a point it gets a little exhausting. The usage of voice over was a big relief in the otherwise erratic, lunatic film. That is the only thing that was normal and mundane in the film, and that kept me invested in all kinds of stuff in the film.

The visuals were so trippy, distorting and appropriate to the drug trip. Sometimes, it was an effect which distorts a normal image in different styles. Sometimes, they image outright lunatic stuff like animals, bats, and weird things in the scene. In some of these scenes, the production design was expressionist, and those scenes creeped me out. Both the actors were beautiful, these things are so physically and mentally draining to perform. I don't know if they were actually high on all those drugs. I think if not on drugs, they had to have been high on something, because I don't think it's possible to act this batshit crazy being sober. I love films which push the boundaries of absurdity, and even if they don't end up engaging - at least they tried something different and they are not mundane for sure. You can at least pick a scene from this film, watch it and laugh about it.