Film 350 ("The Rum Diary") and LadyLamb the Beekeper (local Maine musician)

I recently went to see LadyLamb the Beekeeper at SPACE Gallery (which is like the 6th or 7th time I've seen her). She's a Portland native-musician who moved to New York City a couple of years ago in order to try and cut a "real" record and make a career of her unbelievable talents. If you've yet to hear of her, check out these cuts. The girl is amazing. And the show, of course, was yet again, another great show!

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Film 350
"The Rum Diary"
starring: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Rispoli, Amber Heard, Giovanni Ribisi, Richard Jenkins
written and directed by: Bruce Robinson
novel by: Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson died in 2005 after quite an historic and storied lifetime filled with controversy that was fueled by alcohol and drugs and just downright stubbornness. I won't bore or bother you with a detailed account of his life story, instead I will implore you to read his fantastic books (as long as you enjoy his style of writing, which I do- in fact, I even modeled one of my short stories in college after his style of writing and got many praise for my homage).
For your consideration:
"Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs"
"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
and "The Rum Diary"

The way he wrote "The Rum Diary" was much like Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." It's a fictionalized account, with fictionalized characters, of his own life. And so, with "The Rum Diary" we get an intimate, albeit scattered account of how Thompson became a journalist/writer.
The story takes place in the early 1960s. It was a time that came after Thompson had discovered alcohol but before his journey into drugs. He'd been fired as a copy boy for Time magazine for insubordination, which pretty much rendered him "blacklisted" as far as finding a permanent journalism job. He decided to move to San Juan, Puerto Rico and sought a job as a journalist for the San Juan Star, where he was once again turned down.

The film opens as the ambitious young hero Paul Kemp (Depp), sporting a white suit, a straw hat and the dark glasses Thompson would wear for a lifetime, applies for a reporting job at the Star. It doesn't appear to be the kind of paper that attracted the ambitious in those days. Lotterman (played by Richard Jenkins), the editor, spots him for trouble and immediately asks him how much he drinks. "The high end of social." Love that phrase! A nod to Thompson's writing and perfect use of words. 

He is the only applicant for the job and gets it. He falls in with Sala (played by Michael Rispoli), the paper's veteran photographer, and Moburg (played by an almost unrecogzinable, yet seeming typecast Giovanni Ribisi), a shambling wreck who has been fired but still hangs round the newspaper office. San Juan in those days appears to have been a lively little metropolis in which a reporter on an English-language newspaper was a stranger in a strange land. One of Kemp's stories concerns Sanderson (a handsome Aaron Eckhart), a property developer who has grown rich through shady deals, and occupies a palatial beach home where he entertains local investors. Sanderson has a very beautiful girlfriend in Chenault (the always stunning, Amber Heard), who plays and flirts with Kemp during every single one of their encounters (my favorite being their contest of bravery in Sanderson's red Corvette). 

Johnny Depp is pretty much a perfect choice/only choice to play Hunter S. Thompson in any of these movies. He was perfect in "Fear and Loathing..." And here's why- the two men apparently became very close friends, for obvious reasons, until Thompson's death in 2005. Depp seems connected to Thompson's spirit and just knows how to encapsulate him (as a person) with almost no practice or thought at all. Playing this man seems to come naturally to Depp. 

As a film, it's a decent retelling of the story that Thompson wrote in the 1970s, but the entire lifestyle of Kemp in San Juan, Puerto Rico (which, to me, I assume should be dirtier) comes off a lot more beautiful and scenic than I wanted it to be (especially since it's a Thompson story). As a film it's a little bit to clear, even though the story is rather muddy, as far as "what's the point?" You end the film feeling like you haven't really gained much from the experience. It's not fully entertaining, although I'm sure the filmmakers did a good job recreating Thompson's experience in San Juan through the eyes of Kemp; and he's not necessarily a likable character, which again leads me to wonder "what's the point?" and "what have I gained, if anything?" Although, I must say, it was refreshing to see Johnny Depp in a film sans makeup!