But why has the LSD gone?!

Exams are over! I am free! Free to spend my own time again, and indulge in all those special treats I have been saving for myself!

Which has so far become horrible proof of why you should never deny yourself anything 'til a later date. I had all ready my four indulgences - buy Doctor Who episode Ghost Light on DVD, finally read Doctor Who novel "Love and War", and watch two new movies by my two favourite directors.

Only Ghost Light wasn't in HMV. And "Love and War" made me angry and miserable, but mostly angry. The Happening isn't out at the cinema over here - and I'm looking forward to it less and less. And so everything came to rest on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - the last of Terry Gilliam's "good movies" which I haven't seen. (Now I'm left with Jabberwocky and Baron Munchausen which, even though some do praise, Friend 4 ranks it as fairly dire. And I'm inclined to believe her seeing as I have, over the years, subjected her to almost all his other movies. Incidentally, she likes Time Bandits more, Tideland less, but we're in agreement that Brazil is the second coming.)

And thank goodness for it! Absolutely what I expected, but in a good way (as opposed to The Happening, which on the grounds of his previous excellent movies, I can nevertheless anticipate beat for beat from the trailer). In retrospect, TG making a film about drugs was a bit of a no-duh, after years of movies which made people think he was under the influence.

I didn't catch half the dialogue - but that's OK, as I want to read the book and I get the feeling that much of it was taken verbatim (You know you've got it bad when you deliberately want to see the film before reading the book, when you don't want the novel to scar your impressions of the movie. Even though I seem to recall fans of the book feel something was lost in translation...). You don't watch TG movies to listen to them. You watch them to drown in the imagery, the larger than life characters, the unplaceable grotesque. All big, all slightly off kilter. It's not a desperate feat of the imagination to guess what TG does drugs would look and feel like.

As an adaption - I don't know, haven't read it yet - but the movie made clever use of the first-person perspective. For example, Johnny Depp breaking out of his interior monologue and realising he's speaking aloud. There seems to be something about "drugs + 'Nam + American Dream = counter-cultural classic" - The Beach did it, On the Road did it, and now this.

It also gave me a terrible craving for an exotic fruit drink. Luckily, mum has bought an industrial tonne of drinks for this evening (see below), but 'tis bizzare.

Ah, what else. Definitely top prize goes to those horrible sets, conveying squalour, 80s glamour and nuttiness in equal measure. The music was ace, not only for the movie, but also because it was all genres, artists and songs I liked. Particularly White Rabbit and Somebody to Love, Jefferson Airplane's only two amazing songs. Some interesting cameos by small stars too - Christina Ricci, Cameron Diaz, Tobey Maguire. And Johnny Depp looks disturbingly middle aged, even though he has since made movies more glam.

Mind you, it's not all good. I now have 45 minutes to clear my head before my parents rather swish house party. The only reason I watch films is to tangle my brain inside someone elses - to get out of my life. Like watching Ferris Bueller for a boost when you feel rebellious, or Fight Club when you hate your life, or Velvet Goldmine when you need to feel fantastic. And I can't think of worse place to be, headwise, than Fear and Loathing for socialising with nice people who want to know how my exams went. Mes parens have been at home for several hours now, tidying and cooking pre-party - I've dressed, but my bedroom looks like some of the sets (less vomit. More books. Same number of reptiles. No American flag.) In this post-movie mood, it even seems quite cosy.

I'm listening to Amazing Grace on loop to cool my brain (its a version played on stalacmite organ, quite lovely and peaceful). And for once in my life, I feel like getting very, very drunk (you know what they say about movies influencing behavior? Well...) Mind you, I'd still never want to take drugs. I wouldn't see the point when I could get about as high on flicks like this...