Review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Terry Gilliam (director).
“Two good old boys in a fire-apple-red convertible. Stoned. Ripped. Twisted. Good people.” A reporter and his attorney journey to Las Vegas on countless substances, crawling and speeding through a quest for the American Dream culminating periodically in violence, visions, disorientation, decay and bereavement over the fall of hippies. The people who aren’t on drugs behave with no more humanity.
Black psychedelic comedy and retrospective. The only Gilliam film without obvious fantasy: psychotropic expressionism suffices. Some amazing jokes and a whole lot of pointless, edgy drifting tangential to a reality that may be objective and worth running from. Painful fun. Based on a book.
References here: Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008).