All Nighter

So I've been doing a lot of those lately. My already ridiculous sleeping pattern has been kicking me in the head for the past few weeks, so I've gotten used to being up for 28 to 36 hours at a time, before sleeping for 12 to 15. We've been up to our ears in coursework and yet uni just seems to be winding down. A lot has happened, actually, that I wanted to mention in this blog post... but I can't remember any of it.

Can't have been that important.

I really want chips. Or pizza.

I'll just get on with it instead. I haven't been seeing as many films as I'd have liked, but the ol' cinema isn't always free, and there's only a few films on at the moment that I actually want to see. Not that I get to see all the films I want to see... I didn't get to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I feel a little ashamed at saying that.

Oh, and I lied to you:

THE ROAD.

I saw this film before Up In The Air and forgot that when I did the last post... which was some while ago now. Anyway, The Road was the third and final of the Post-Apocalypse films that I saw in a row. It was an odd run, but it made for good film. I've always loved post-apocalypse stories, there's something in me that likes seeing humanity reduced to the animals we really are.

I don't think I've ever seen a film to rival The Road. I mean that, I really do. It's not my favourite film ever, it's not better than anything I've ever seen... but I will definately remember this film, simply for the sheer artistry of the bleakness. What point is there in continuing? Why should we keep breathing in and out when all the world is ash around us?

The film truly conveys the sheer desperation that these two lonely travellers must feel, the utter hopelessness.

The story is simply. A man and a boy are walking to the south, where they hope it is warmer. That's it. That's all.

But it's simply devastatingly powerful, the jagged beauty of the ripped up world around them kicks the living crap out of anything that Cameron and his legion of programmer-drones could come up with and the horrifying situations that they find themselves in again and again are almost too much to watch. I was on the edge of my seat several times and that rarely happens.

Sterling performances all round.

Haunting settings and music.

Directing and writing worthy of so much.

This is one of the bleakest films I've ever seen, so don't watch it if you're feeling in the slightest depressed. Nothing really happens for 90 minutes, even more walking than Lord of the Rings, slightly corny dialouge... but all told, just perfectly bleak. I still can't quite get over it. See it. But see it when you're not feeling down, otherwise it could just tip you over the edge.

(Next time WILL be Up In The Air)