Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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domino harvey
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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#51 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:04 am

My Top 15 (with orphans highlighted)

01 Wrong Move
02 Pierrot le fou
03 Week End
04 Stagecoach
05 Saboteur
06 Paper Moon
07 Sullivan’s Travels
08 A Ticket to Tomahawk
09 the Last Wagon

10 Hollywood or Bust!
11 War of the Worlds (2005)
12 Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
13 Maine-Océan

14 Harry and Tonto
15 Emperor of the North

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#52 Post by knives » Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:29 am

I'm rather surprised Paper Moon didn't take the top prize as that seems like the popular example in terms of the genre fully refined over Hellman's (good) experimentation thereof.

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#53 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:57 am

I was a little worried that we'd be able to come up with a full list given how the neo-noir one turned out, but this one seemed to work out just fine. Thanks for tabulating, domino!

My top 10:

01 Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
02 Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985) -- ORPHAN
Image
03 Life and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami, 1992)
04 Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 1985)
05 Walking from Munich to Berlin (Oskar Fischinger, 1927)
06 Wrong Move (Wim Wenders, 1975)
07 Landscape in the Mist (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1988) -- ALSO RAN
08 Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010) -- ORPHAN
09 The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)
10 Rules of the Road (Su Friedrich, 1993) -- ALSO RAN

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domino harvey
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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#54 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:02 pm

We ended up with thirteen lists, with about half of participants choosing to vote for more than the minimum ten. Participation ended up being about par for regular lists, though several members told me this was their first time participating. I'm still troubleshooting the mini-lists (I think going forward I'll allot at least six weeks for a mini-list, as opposed to a month), but a mildly promising start. Also, friendly reminder that this and all other genre list threads will remain open, so feel free to continue contributing thoughts on any films you see which fit the rubric here

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#55 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:13 pm

14 of the 25 films on the final list are in the Criterion Collection, with another two rumored to be in the works. Surely this is some kind of record?

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#56 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:15 pm

We know Wrong Move is for sure coming, what's the other rumored title?

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#57 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:15 pm

The Kiarostami, as part of the Koker trilogy.

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#58 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:17 pm

Ah, nice!

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#59 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:23 pm

As one of the first-timers who wrote to Dom when submitting, I was really happy with the Mini-List concept; I've been wanting to participate in the core List Projects for almost two years, but have never been able to devote the time to filling in the gaps in knowledge required to make an attempt at a Top 50 I could feel satisfied with (though I have about two-thirds of my 2000s list fleshed out). The Mini-Lists make for a more manageable viewing pile, while simultaneously forcing a much more difficult culling process when you can't stick in the near-great films you love at number 23. I hope this experiment was successful enough to continue!

Anyway, my list looks like a Charles Dickens novel:

1. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979) - ORPHAN Really? Is this a categorization issue, or is this just significantly less appreciated on this board than I had realized?
2. The Wages of Fear (Clouzot, 1953)
3. Badlands (Malick, 1973)
4. Two-Lane Blacktop (Hellman, 1971)
5. The Road Warrior (Miller, 1981) - ORPHAN
6. Sullivan's Travels (Sturges, 1941)
7. Y tu Mama Tambien (Cuaron, 2001)
8. Sorcerer (Friedkin, 1977) - ORPHAN
9. Duel (Spielberg, 1971) - ORPHAN
10. Stagecoach (Ford, 1939)
11. The Motorcycle Diaries (Salles, 2004) - ORPHAN
12. Sideways (Payne, 2004) - ORPHAN

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#60 Post by knives » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:28 pm

I originally had AN on my list, but swapped it for Nebraska, I think, if that's any consolation.

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domino harvey
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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#61 Post by domino harvey » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:29 pm

My response to seeing Apocalypse Now on your list was the same as seeing Red River on someone else's. I thought "That's a great film," realized it does indeed fit the perimeters of a road movie, briefly considered it, then dismissed voting for them because they didn't feel "right" for the project for me. Both are perfectly valid choices and great films worth seeing and appreciating on their own merits and belonged on this list if others agreed.

And the mini-lists will soldier on, I think. I'll announce our next pair of mini-lists midway through the next full list project, so sometime in March for execution during the summer! But for right now, I couldn't be more excited for the Youth List Project!

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#62 Post by Rayon Vert » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:36 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:As one of the first-timers who wrote to Dom when submitting, I was really happy with the Mini-List concept; I've been wanting to participate in the core List Projects for almost two years, but have never been able to devote the time to filling in the gaps in knowledge required to make an attempt at a Top 50 I could feel satisfied with (though I have about two-thirds of my 2000s list fleshed out). The Mini-Lists make for a more manageable viewing pile, while simultaneously forcing a much more difficult culling process when you can't stick in the near-great films you love at number 23. I hope this experiment was successful enough to continue!

Anyway, my list looks like a Charles Dickens novel:

1. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979) - ORPHAN Really? Is this a categorization issue, or is this just significantly less appreciated on this board than I had realized?
I think it's a categorization issue, or else I would have put it high up in my top 15. Wages of Fear I also didn't include because it doesn't feel like a road movie (to me), even though most of it takes place... on a road. The Seventh Seal and North By Northwest I also didn't include for the same reasons. War of the Worlds (2005) I didn't think of, but that would have made my top 15. (Still not sure I'd call it a road movie, though. This is a tough "genre" to pigeonhole.)

I also appreciate the mini-lists a lot. For example, I'm systematically going through all of the classic noirs right now, but I haven't seen enough to think I can come up with a satisfactory top 50 - until I've seen everything on my to-view list.

And Il Sorpasso would have been my no. 16. And I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen Paper Moon yet.

Someone mentioned Thieves Like Us. I considered it, because it's very high on my top films of all time, but I disqualified it.
Last edited by Rayon Vert on Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#63 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:41 pm

knives wrote:I originally had AN on my list, but swapped it for Nebraska, I think, if that's any consolation.
It is!
domino harvey wrote:My response to seeing Apocalypse Now on your list was the same as seeing Red River on someone else's. I thought "That's a great film," realized it does indeed fit the perimeters of a road movie, briefly considered it, then dismissed voting for them because they didn't feel "right" for the project for me. Both are perfectly valid choices and great films worth seeing and appreciating on their own merits and belonged on this list if others agreed.
Totally understand that reaction; I did more or less the same thing with Pierrot le fou, though given its prominence on the list, perhaps the nearly 20 years since I last saw it have muddled those gut feelings a bit. I was fairly traditional and conservative with my definition of road movies on the rest of the list, but for whatever reason Apocalypse Now seems to me like the Platonic ideal of one of the foundations of the road movie format: a long, almost episodic journey to a final goal whose significance is altered one way or another as a result of the experience of the journey.
domino harvey wrote:And the mini-lists will soldier on, I think. I'll announce our next pair of mini-lists midway through the next full list project, so sometime in March for execution during the summer! But for right now, I couldn't be more excited for the Youth List Project!
Glad to hear it, and agreed!

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#64 Post by dustybooks » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:50 pm

This was fun, despite the requisite guilt over not contributing much to the conversation, though the final list gives me a good deal to explore further and I will make use of the invitation to keep adding to the thread. My orphans were:

Lolita -- Not really surprised at where this landed, but the images of Humbert and his paranoia over being followed with Lolita in the passenger seat are among the first things that strike me when I think of the term "road movie." Though the novel is obviously a masterpiece on another level and Kubrick doesn't need any further promotion here or anywhere, I actually find this to be one of his strongest and most emotionally resonant films; our relationship to Humbert wanders around in an amoral muck that recalls Scotty in Vertigo... and I truly believe this features the best performances ever by both James Mason and Peter Sellers.

One Way Passage -- Kind of a weird choice for this list as it takes place on a cruise ship, but I opted for it because it so effectively conjures up the romance of travel. It's a classic star-crossed lovers scenario with a dying woman and a convicted felon enjoying a brief affair while out at sea, neither aware of the other's fate and both determined to conceal it. Tissues essential, etc.

The Sugarland Express -- One of the best of the Badlands / Bonnie & Clyde on-the-run subgenre, beautifully photographed and with an unforgettably tragic finale. Wraps up in a neat parallel with Duel, which I almost voted for (and I see someone did!).

Watership Down -- After twenty years of this being in my life, it never fails to captivate me to follow these rabbits as they escape the doom of their own warren, encounter all sorts of predatory danger and make their way to the other side of the hills. The animation has its limitations, being shepherded by a director with little experience, but I still believe it's one of the loveliest of all feature-length cartoons.

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#65 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:12 pm

I panicked, completely forgot the rules and submitted a top 50! But that just shows there are more than enough road movies to fit in such a list (and I'm still remembering a few I forgot such as The Devil Thumbs A Ride)

My top fifteen was:

1. Eureka (2000) - now that A Brighter Summer Day is coming out, can we start lobbying for Criterion to release this?
2. Wild Strawberries
3. Roadkill (1989) - the first Bruce McDonald film, full of strange characters, reveries on the road and beautiful musical interludes.
4. Badlands
5. The Wages of Fear
6. Emperor of the North
7. 10 (2002) - the car as the empowering lynchpin of community and society
8. Radio On
9. Detour (1945)
10. Highway 61 - the other Bruce McDonald road movie, this time in colour and more comedic and fantastical, particularly in its devilish character in pursuit of our two leads
11. Vagabond
12. Y Tu Mama Tambien
13. It Happened One Night
14. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - In the era of 1990s clashes between two suspiciously similarly themed films coming out from different companies the focus has always been on the big hitters such as Deep Impact versus Armageddon, or A Bug’s Life versus Antz, but what about the other knock down, drag out fight between two road movies that are so suspiciously similar they even feature unwieldy titles – The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert versus To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar!

Both fims involve a trio of drag artistes travelling cross country, encountering and charming the small town folk they encounter with a mix of musical numbers and well placed knees in the crotch of bigots, and an empowering ‘be yourself!’ message. But Priscilla rings truer, perhaps because Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp make for believable characters (or rather their characters are fleshed out more than just their personas) when compared to the sight (albeit still eye-popping one) of Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo!

Vanessa Williams’ Save The Best For Last makes for a great end title song too (performed over the end credits by the Costume Designer who won the Academy Award for the film!), and almost made me forget the seminal usage of the song for a gravy commercial a couple of years later (Almost!)

and finally 15. Crash (1996) - because who doesn't imagine that one day they'll get the chance to run into a famous star?

In terms of the rest of the list I'd like to put in mentions for two more bus hijacking dramas: Mark Romanek's Static and Autobus - Aux yeux du monde

And since I try to mention it in every one of these lists, Daft Punk's Electroma fits the road movie format very well too!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Tue Aug 23, 2016 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#66 Post by mizo » Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:41 pm

My top ten:

1. Wrong Move (Wim Wenders, 1975)
2. Life and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami, 1992)
3. Mobile Men (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2008) ORPHAN
4. Two Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
5. Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock, 1942)
6. Week End (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
7. The Straight Story (David Lynch, 1999)
8. Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
9. Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) ORPHAN (What!?)
10. The Rules of the Road (Su Friedrich, 1993) ALSO-RAN

I enjoyed this a lot, even if I did briefly leave the fold :wink: . That nobody else voted for Foreign Correspondent is baffling, however. (I originally planned to place it higher, then I had to watch the scene where Joel McCrea escapes his hotel room about five times in a row and then explain how Hitchcock obeys the guidelines of classical Hollywood continuity editing, as part of the final for my film class, and that kind of exposure made it fall a little in my estimation.)

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#67 Post by zedz » Mon Dec 21, 2015 5:05 pm

I very quickly assembled my list yesterday and it came out like this. Only four made the final list:

1. Walking from Munich to Berlin (Oskar Fischinger, 1927) - The granddaddy of them all, and an incredible film in any decade.
2. Sherman’s March (Ross McElwee, 1986) - ORPHAN. My top two films were both documentaries, and about as diametrically opposed as documentaries can be. This is a modern Odyssey with lots and lots of Circes and Burt Reynolds in the role of Polyphemus.
3. Life and Nothing More (Abbas Kiarostami, 1991) - I somehow managed to restrict myself to only three Kiarostami films, and here they come right now.
4. Where Is the Friend’s House? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987) - ORPHAN
5. Traveller (Abbas Kiarostami, 1974) - ORPHAN
6. Diamonds of the Night (Jan Nemec, 1964) - ORPHAN. This is kind of on the knife edge of the genre for me, since it's technically an escape / on the run film, but it has the picaresque structure common to road movies as well as bucketloads of existential (and metaphysical) angst.
7. Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, 1976) - ORPHAN. This is kind of a surprise omission to me, since it's the most road movie-est of Wenders' road movies (as well as being his best film).
8. The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) - ORPHAN. I considered a number of westerns (e.g. The Searchers), but this was the only one that ticked the 'road movie' box for me, since it turns out to be less of a quest or pursuit (a pretty common western format) than an existential journey.
9. Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1991)
10. A Walk Through H (Peter Greenaway, 1978) - ORPHAN. At first, this struck me as obviously not a road movie, but the more I thought about it the more it seemed like the purest one of them all.
11. Vagabond (Agnes Varda, 1985)
12. Half Moon (Bahman Ghobadi, 2006) - ORPHAN. Ghobadi kind of made this movie before, in Marooned in Iraq, but this hallucinatory revamp is much stranger and much better: one of the great road movies of the 21st century
13. Old Joy (Kelly Reichardt, 2006) - ORPHAN. And here's another one. Beautifully intimate.
14. Stalker (Andrey Tarkovsky, 1979) - ALSO RAN
15. Landscape in the Mist (Angelopoulos, 1988) - ALSO RAN

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#68 Post by Rayon Vert » Mon Dec 21, 2015 7:43 pm

This was my list:

1. The Searchers
2. The Passenger
3. Walkabout
4. Pierrot le fou
5. Red River
6. Wagon Master
7. Five Easy Pieces
8. Saboteur
9. Weekend
10. Voyage in Italy (Journey in Italy)
11. L’Avventura
12. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
13. Gun Crazy
14. Easy Rider
15. The Milky Way

This would have been my list instead if I had considered as a road movie every film categorized as such by someone here:

1. The Searchers
2. North By Northwest
3. The Passenger
4. Walkabout
5. Thieves Like Us
6. The Seventh Seal
7. Pierrot le fou
8. Apocalypse Now
9. Red River
10. Wages of Fear
11. Wagon Master
12. Five Easy Pieces
13. The 39 Steps
14. War of the Worlds (2005)
15. Saboteur

(If Rossellini's The Flowers of St. Francis can be considered a road movie, that would have been my no. 13).

It's been too long that I've seen Wenders' films, Badlands and Y Tu Mama to consider them, and I haven't seen Kiarostami's yet. Emperor of the North is on my soon-to-watch list.

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#69 Post by domino harvey » Tue Dec 29, 2015 1:37 am

Catching up on some titles voted by others and/or remaining in my unwatched pile:

the Color Wheel (Alex Ross Perry 2012) I owe whoever listed this film on their ballot a thank you and an apology. Thanks for pointing me towards this fantastic film, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to see it before voting ended, because it would have absolutely made my list. This is by a million miles the best thing I’ve ever seen come out of the Mumblecore movement (and I plan to delve deeper into this subgenre with our new Youth list— pray for me), though it’s far more polished and scripted than most entries fare. Turns out Perry is good for more than just typefaces and poster commissions! Perry and Carlen Altman co-write and co-star in this riotously funny peek into a couple days on the road with the most dysfunctional siblings imaginable. This would make for a perfect double feature with its most obvious influence, Margot at the Wedding, though Kidman and Leigh end up looking pretty tolerant next to these two!

(Really don’t unspoiler the following unless you’ve seen the film)
SpoilerShow
I admire Perry for not pulling his punches and following through on the fact that these two are in a love story narrative regardless of their blood relation. The consummation at the end of the film is a disturbingly carnal moment, jarring and fully-earned (and wearily expected in a “No no no no no no no” anticipatory fashion throughout that whole nine minute unbroken shot). I don’t think the film goes “there” to be shocking, and it immediately seems inevitable once it happens. The blatant charisma and spark between the leads throughout just suddenly moves from thoughts of “Oh, it seems like these two actors liked each other” to “Oh, these two characters like each other… Oh.” Looking back on the journey we realize how all of the barriers had been broken down in order to foster this development, which like a bad social cue is initially misread. In emotionally healthy people, the newfound intimacy the two share on their journey would be platonic rather than incestuous, but as the film goes to great lengths to show us, these two are fucked up, quite likely beyond repair by the end of the film. But these two also feel real in a way few films achieve, and I bought into both characters completely. That didn’t mean I had to like them, but I felt drawn to them despite their incessant negativity and garrulous nature because the film allowed me to become invested. All credit goes to Perry and Altman here, who have (presumably) written to their respective strengths in crafting these characters, and pull it off beautifully.
Also, I laughed out loud many many many times in this film— there are stretches of dialog where just about everything that comes out of Altman’s mouth garners a hearty laugh.

I loved the Color Wheel and it gets my highest recommendation, and now it's a lock for my upcoming Youth List! Factory 25 has put out a special edition (limited to 500 copies) of this film (with Perry’s first feature thrown in for good measure), housed inside a storybook-sized tome with a nice essay by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky alongside some set photos, all for only a little over $15 on Amazon as of this writing.

Duel (Steven Spielberg 1971) Dennis Weaver is terrorized by an unseen truck driver in one of the most famous TV movies ever made, later expanded into a theatrical version (which is the one I watched). Weaver is way too weird here to garner much sympathy and the film repeats the same idea over and over until it becomes a zen action film— though I’ll take the endless highway pursuits over moments like Weaver freaking out in a diner. Spielberg has some obvious chops, even this early on, but this one didn't end up working for me.

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton 1985) Lots of critics at the time noted Pee-wee Herman’s similarity to Jerry Lewis’ adult child act, but few remembered or knew enough to connect the other half of the reference and note how Burton cleverly apes the methodology of Frank Tashlin in presenting this live action cartoon centered on a bizarre figure who’s strangeness has been diluted in the interim by familiarity but is still on full display here. I’m not sure how funny I found the film or Herman’s act, but like John K’s span with Ren and Stimpy, I can respect the clarity of the comic vision here and admire the craft that went into it. Many of the best sequences defy conventional explanation— my favorite being Herman’s “Tequila” dance— but there is a wholeness and internal logic to all of the endeavors.

As a weird side note, I don’t think I’ve seen this since I caught it 15+ years ago on TNT’s Monstervision for some unknown programming reason. Watching Joe Bob Briggs talk about the film at every commercial break, looking even more confused than Count Floyd did post-Bergman screening, has forever been lodged in my mind since. I recall at one point Briggs said something to the effect of, “A lot of people consider that scene of the movie the best part” before looking exasperatingly at the camera, absolutely dead inside.

Sorcerer (William Friedkin 1977) Effective updating/reduxing of the Wages of Fear, which plays out a bit like a ghostdirected Costa-Gavras film at first as we follow the assorted personal turmoils leading our suicide mission volunteers to their predicament. Friedkin directs the picture with energy and gusto, and the changes made to the source material mostly work out. I’m not sure this film was necessary, but it is enjoyable on its own.

the Yellow Handkerchief (Udayan Prasad 2010) This remake of a Japanese film, unseen by me, follows William Hurt’s release from prison for manslaughter and the trek he makes through post-Katrina Louisiana with two teenagers (Kirsten Stewart and Eddie Redmayne) in tow. Hurt is good, as he often is, as the quiet central figure, and while I initially found the heavy reliance on flashbacks a distraction, they eventually start to hit their mark with surprising effectiveness. I don’t buy the road movie machinations that tether Hurt to his younger co-stars, but they mostly take the backseat to Hurt regardless, so it doesn’t matter too much. Certainly if you needed to see Eddie Redmayne in a road movie, picking this over the godawful Hick would be the right choice, but what a strange thing to need in the first place!

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Re: Road Movies Genre Mini-List Discussion + Suggestions

#70 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Mar 12, 2021 7:18 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:10 pm
the Lucky Ones (Neil Burger 2008) Ignored by audiences (I’d never even heard of it before seeing it pop up on an IMDB list of Road Movies) and savaged by critics, this tale of three extremely likable and interesting Iraq war soldiers on leave and making their way through the country together is easily my favorite discovery yet from this project. I can’t believe the writer/director responsible for the turgid the Illusionist is the same guy responsible for this charming exploration of how people from all walks of life encounter and react to our trio of vets. That the film isn’t concerned with taking a side as far as the war goes presumably put a bad taste in the mouth of critics at the time, but the film gives us full brushstrokes for each of the characters played by Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams, and Michael Pena, complete with a smattering of unlikable traits that go unresolved in each, which to my eyes makes them all the more fascinating. This is in many ways exactly the kind of thing a road movie can do well
I liked this too, though it took a little while for me to warm to the classic Hollywood conventions that initially felt contrived in its modernized narrative (there are many examples to choose from, but the introduction of Robbins' son to the immediate regurgitation of his college problem was a poorly-written construct if I've ever seen one). However, the film really works if viewed as a contemporary reworking of The Best Years of Our Lives and the films of that era that could drop in plot hiccups and character developments with concise dialogue without irritating its audience. The trio of actors are all terrific and their natural dynamic work to simultaneously reveal doses of anthropological clarity and subvert catharses with the kind of authenticity we find in the best of these concocted structures (I enjoyed how Burger and Wittenborn dismantle the predicated path of the guitar's quote matching the tuition in having Pena's character boldly verbalize the thought we're all thinking to get it over with). I totally get why the critical and viewer response for this was tempered, for the same reason I understand why people were puzzled by David O. Russell's Nailed!, a golden-age screwball comedy made today, or Mamet's Spartan, an old-school Hitchcockian adventure with a ready-made self-actualized hero who actually makes us question his character because we're so used to assisting in a lead's development and self-confidence. This is a WWII-era homefront war film made today.

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