Movie Recommendation: Into the Wild

It may not have exactly been the best choice for a movie to see in my current state, I thought, buying my ticket, but I was wrong. Into the Wild is a fantastic film.

It is a road picture, of course, based on the true story of a young man disillusioned with his parents and the lie about how his family began, who gives his money away, goes west, works his way up to Alaska, only to die in an old abandoned bus. The movie is well structured, with the Alaska scenes serving as the framework and everything that happened before interspersed in chronological order. Not a bad performance in the bunch. Nice performance by Vince Vaughn, who of course was great in "Wedding Crashers."

I have the book, and now I can read it to see how it is different from the movie. From what someone told me the book is less sympathetic to the protagonist than the movie.

Sean Penn wrote the screenplay and directed and did a fair amount of his own camera work. Jeff Spicoli has come a long way (and that's not to demean the portrayal of Jeff Spicoli).

So, if you have an open mind about why the guy would do what he did, like footage of America, especially Alaska, enjoy road movies, go see "Into the Wild."

After that, I was to go bop around Lark Street, but it was raining and didn't feel like it. I have two very special visitors coming this p.m., so I wanted to be in good shape to greet them properly.

Tonight, Ballingers!