Wild

Didn't we see the prequel to this movie seven years ago when Emile Hirsch played a homeless hobo in Into the Wild? How many depressed white people do we need to see go backpacking across America while they find themselves? Black people aren't walking that far with a backpack mainly because once we were freed from slavery we vowed to never spend that much time outside again. Mexicans walk that far but it's never glorified as all they do is cross the border to work their tails off and that's too depressing to put on screen. Native Americans no longer walk that far because they were tricked into staying in the modern day acceptable version of a concentration camp, the Indian Casinos. So now that I have offended everyone in the galaxy I guess it's time to let you know my thoughts on Into the Wild: the sequel.

Nick Hornby (Fever Pitch, High Fidelity) helped pen the screenplay to Cheryl Strayed's 1000 mile journey across the Pacific Crest Trail; a journey she undertook after her life started spiraling downward following a tragic event. Thankfully Hornby has the talent to take the most mundane story like that of a soccer fanatic's love for his favorite team and turn it into a story for the ages, because to be honest with you once you get past Strayed's history, her hike up the West Coast trail seems like nothing more than a long stay at scout camp.

I don't mean to downplay the amount of dedication and effort it takes to hike 1000 miles across the Mojave dessert and snow capped mountains but nothing really spectacular happened to Strayed while she was on her journey. She struggles through a number of missteps that most if not all rookie hikers would make, such as buying the wrong fuel for your burner to cook food with or packing way too much in your backpack, all of which are presented in a rather funny manner, but is this really worth 120 minutes of my time? Couldn't this all be put in a 5 minute YouTube video of what not to do when taking an unnecessary walk in the heat because you don't want to face your problems head on?

Outside of meeting quite a few interesting characters along the way and of course running into the obvious dangers that come with being a female hiking in the woods alone, the only enlightening thing Strayed experienced was running into a fox that seemed to be interested in her for all of about 2 minutes.

I will say that finally seeing Reese Witherspoon play a dirty girl was a bit refreshing; I've never had a crush on her or anything but I never knew she had that kind of a streak in her. After seeing this performance however, I now see her in a different light. The amount of work she put into truly connecting with her character is evident and she deserves all of the recognition she gets. I just hope that in the battle of hot girls finally getting nude, she loses to Scarlett Johansson for her performance in Under the Skin; easily one of the year's best.

I found this movie to be entertaining and the random experiences she had on her journey were interesting enough to keep my attention. The one thing you will walk away impressed with is the performance of Laura Dern as she is a revelation playing the role of Staryed's mother. I rate this movie as sort of FRESH!