Basically, Ed must face some hard truths about himself, and he must do it in the face of abject adversity from all around him (albeit most of it self-created).

Now, let’s take a look at some of the characters’ names: Ed Saxon. Saxon…might as well have named him Ed Whitebread. Eve Saxon…Eve…no symbolism there. George Simian…hmm…he doesn’t represent the ambition and aggression that Ed has let life leach out of him in his adult years, eh? And Sally Crumb? If that isn’t a reference to Jabba the Hutt’s minion Salacious Crumb, I will eat your fucking Stormtrooper helmet…if only you’d take it out of the original packaging.

But I digress.

The bottom line is, Chasing Sleep is a deliberately paced, surreal film with as many levels as your fevered geek mind can ascribe to it. It is superbly acted and shot with some really interesting camera work. I recommend it highly.

However (isn’t there always a however?) as Americans, we got totally screwed on the DVD release. Our version contains the movie…and that’s it. Whereas the French and German releases contain a filmmaker commentary and one of Walker’s short films. We got hosed, yo. But never fear: Walker’s website, chasingsleep.com, gives you access not only to his witty and caustic blogs and news of his two upcoming feature films, but also gives you access to an mp3 file of the commentary. So you iPod people can download it and play it along with the film. From what I hear, Walker eschews giving much explanation of what’s going on thematically in the film, to preserve the audience’s ability to come to their own conclusions. A move that I wholeheartedly endorse.

Two final notes: I bought a copy of this film on VHS at Big Lots for the princely sum of one dollar. Further evidence that blind buys are not always problematic. And lastly, if nothing else in this review has convinced you to buy this film (I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain!), how does the fact that Emily Bergl shows her Bergls grab ya?

Yeah, I thought so.