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This'll blow you away. Emile Hirsch is blimmin' awesome as Christopher McCandless, a single-minded graduate who decides to give up on the rat race and go travelling to Alaska. Giving up his worldly possessions he soon discovers the cameradie out there on the road, amongst the travellers and hippies with nothing but love to keep them going, a million miles away from the safety of his middle-class upbringing.

Christopher's journey is hardly a straight line - he heads down to Mexico at one point - but this is a roadtrip based on intuition rather than Sat Nav. It's also not easy. After reaching the wilds of America's most northerly state, nature proves Christopher's biggest challenge.

The mighty Sean Penn wrote and directed this poetic nod to the freedom of the open road. It's also star-packed - Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart and Zach Galifianakis all turn up along the way. But what packs the most punch is that this is true story. A tragic one, at that.

The genuine buzz of being young and being free runs through every scene, each a snapshot of a hidden America and the people who've decided that the 21st century no longer floats their boat. It's only by going without that you can really appreciate what you've got.