I'm going to recommend



with the caveat that I watched it after being awake for more than 24 hours straight. I didn't see it for so long because of its abysmal reviews, but it was really enjoyable, particularly because I love a lot of Gilliam's previous work and here he nails some scenes. Depp's transformation into Hunter S. Thompson is remarkable--he gets the mumbly incoherent speech of an aged junky and gonzo journalist just right, and even nails Thompson's propensity to explode into occasional verbal violence. Benicio del Torro is excellent as well, and there are great cameos by Christina Ricci, Gary Bussey, and Lyle Lovett (not to mention an appearance by Thompson himself). Sure, there's a lot of drugged-up ridiculousness, but Gilliam manages to accent the liberating and destructive aspects of the counterculture. The film climaxes with Neil Young's achingly plaintive and beautiful Buffalo Springfield ballad "Expecting to Fly." I enjoyed every second of it.

I'm waiting for the Presidential debate--can't watch it here at the Library, but I'm going to do the forbidden and listen to the live webcast on npr.com while sitting at the desk. Why do I care? I know for whom I'm voting, after all. I suppose I need to know myself who "wins," instead of who the blathering stuffed shirts and pinup pundits tell us wins afterward.