Again the showbiz trades have nearly opposite reax to a top Oscar contender. After seeing it at Telluride, Variety is truly wild about director Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," while the Hollywood Reporter gave it a mixed review that include a few painful digs.

Variety: "In his fourth and by far best feature turn behind the camera, Sean Penn delivers a compelling, ambitious work that will satisfy most admirers of the book. Early-fall prestige entry's wider prospects will depend on careful momentum building from reviews and word of mouth, with repeat young-adult biz likely if it doesn't get pushed off screens too soon. In some ways, adapter-director Penn has made a lyrical youth-rebellion flick in the classic late '60s/early '70s mode." READ MORE

Hollywood Reporter: "An extravagantly ambitious, unfocused film that chronicles this tragic episode with flights of brilliance, self-indulgence and thrilling nature cinematography . . . . Penn opts for epic proportions and clutters his narrative with gimmicks. For the most part, it works. What's missing is the perspective and insight that would illuminate the inner dimensions of a driven young man who is preachy and downright irritating. It's unclear if it's a function of the screenplay, the callowness of the character or a flat lead performance, but McCandless remains opaque, so the movie is saddled with a cipher at its center." READ MORE