Showing posts with label (Road Movie). Show all posts
Showing posts with label (Road Movie). Show all posts

Monday, 12 February 2018

The Wrong Move (1975)

Aiming to be a writer, Wilhelm leaves mother and girlfriend in his home town of Glückstadt in the flat far north of Germany and sets out for Bonn. Changing trains at Hamburg, he is struck by a beautiful actress, Therese, and obtains her phone number. In his compartment are an older man Laertes, who mostly communicates by blowing a mouth organ, and a young female acrobat called Mignon, who is mute. The pair have no money, so Wilhelm pays their fare and puts them up in his cheap hotel, where Therese joins them. Bernhard, an awkward Austrian who wants to be a poet, befriends the four. He says he has a rich uncle with a castle on a peak overlooking the Rhine, but when the five turn up it is the wrong place. The owner welcomes them however, because their arrival stopped him shooting himself, and says they can stay as long as they like.

But tensions grow, for Wilhelm is not giving Therese the affection she wants, while Mignon signals her availability to him. Laertes, feeling guilt but not repentant, disgusts Wilhelm by revealing some of his role in the Holocaust. Then the owner of castle hangs himself, upon which the five leave hastily. Bernhard goes off while Therese takes the other three to her small flat in Frankfurt, where the tensions grow worse. Leaving on his own, Wilhelm completes his symbolic journey by reaching one of the most southerly, highest and emptiest points in Germany, the summit of the Zugspitze.

Saturday, 13 August 2016

(1998) Buffalo '66


Buffalo '66 is a 1998 comedy-drama film that is writer-director Vincent Gallo's full-length motion picture debut. Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci star in the lead roles and the supporting cast includes Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, Ben Gazzara, and Anjelica Huston. Gallo also composed and performed much of the music for the film.

The film received critical acclaim and Empire listed it as the 36th-greatest independent film ever made. It was filmed in and around Gallo's native Buffalo, New York in winter. The film makes extensive use of British progressive rock music in its soundtrack, notably King Crimson and Yes.

Having just served five years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) kidnaps a young tap dancer named Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his wife. Layla allows herself to be kidnapped and it is clear she is romantically attracted to Billy from the start, but Billy all the while is compelled to deal with his own demons, his loneliness and his depression.

The subplot of Billy seeking revenge on the man indirectly responsible for his imprisonment, Scott Wood, is a reference to a former Buffalo Bills kicker, Scott Norwood, who missed the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants in 1991.

Monday, 25 July 2016

(2003) The Brown Bunny

The Brown Bunny is a 2003 American independent art house film written, produced and directed by Vincent Gallo about a motorcycle racer on a cross-country drive who is haunted by memories of his former lover. The film had its world premiere at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. The film garnered a great deal of media attention because of the explicit and unsimulated sex in the final scene between Gallo and actress Chloë Sevigny, as well as a war of words between Gallo and film critic Roger Ebert, who stated that The Brown Bunny was the worst film in the history of Cannes, although he later gave a re-edited version of the film his signature "thumbs up".


The film stars Gallo and Chloë Sevigny in the two central roles, as well as a cameo performance by American former model Cheryl Tiegs. The movie was filmed on handheld 16 mm cameras in various locations throughout the United States, including New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ohio, Missouri, Utah, Nevada, and California.


Motorcycle racer Bud Clay undertakes a cross-country drive, following a race in New Hampshire, in order to participate in a race in California. All the while he is haunted by memories of his former lover, Daisy. On his journey he meets three women, but Bud seems to be a lost soul, and he is unable to form an emotional connection with any of them. He first meets Violet at a gas station in New Hampshire and convinces her to join him on his trip. They stop at her home in order to get her clothes, but he drives off as soon as she enters the house.


Bud's next stop is the home of Daisy's parents, the location of Daisy's brown bunny. Daisy's mother does not remember Bud, who grew up in the house next door, nor does she remember having visited Bud and Daisy in California. Next, Bud stops at a pet shelter, where he asks about the life expectancy of rabbits (he is told it is about five or six years). At a highway rest stop, he meets a distressed woman, Lilly. He comforts and kisses her, before starting to cry and eventually leaving her. Bud appears more distressed as the road trip continues, crying as he drives. He stops at the Bonneville Speedway to race his motorcycle. In Las Vegas, he drives around prostitutes on street corners, before deciding to ask one of them, Rose, to join him for a lunch. She eats McDonald's food in his truck until he stops, pays her, and leaves her back on the street.



After having his motorcycle checked in a Los Angeles garage, Bud stops at Daisy's house, which appears abandoned. He leaves a note on the door frame, after sitting in his truck in the driveway remembering about kissing Daisy in this place, and checks in at a hotel. Daisy eventually appears there. She seems nervous, going to the bathroom twice to smoke crack cocaine, while Bud waits for her, sitting on his bed. As she proposes to go out to buy something to drink, Bud tells her that, because of what happened the last time they saw each other, he does not drink anymore.


They have an argument about Daisy kissing other men. At this point, Bud undresses Daisy and she performs fellatio on him, culminating in her swallowing his semen. Once done, he insults her as they lie in bed, talking about what happened during their last meeting. Bud continuously asks Daisy why she had been involved with some men at a party. She explains that she was just being friendly and wanted to smoke marijuana with them. Bud becomes upset because Daisy was pregnant and it transpires that the baby died as a result of what happened at this party.


Through flashback scenes, the viewer understands that Daisy was raped at the party, a scene witnessed by Bud, who did not intervene. Daisy asks Bud why he didn't help her, and his feelings of guilt on this are considerable. He tells her that he did not know what to do, and so he decided to leave the party. After he came back a bit later, he saw an ambulance in front of the house and Daisy explains to Bud that she is dead, having passed out prior to the rape and then choked to death on her own vomit. Bud awakens the next morning, alone; his encounter with Daisy turns out to have been a figment of his imagination. The movie ends as Bud is driving his truck in California.

Thursday, 30 June 2016

Nebraska (2013)

Cantankerous old buzzard Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) can barely walk down the street of his home in Billings, Mont., without stopping for a drink. So when Woody receives receives a sweepstakes notice in the mail and insists on making a 750-mile trip to Lincoln, Neb., to collect his prize, it falls to baffled son David (Will Forte) to accompany him. During a stop in their Nebraska hometown, word gets out about Woody's fortune, first making him a hero, then later, the target of predatory people.

Thursday, 23 June 2016

Road Trip (2000)

Josh (Breckin Meyer) videotapes his affair with another girl and accidentally mails it to his girlfriend. Discovering the mistake, he tows two of his college buddies - and one not-so-eager kid who happens to own the car - on a raucous 1,800-mile road trip from Ithaca, N.Y., to Austin, Texas, to save his lifelong romance.

Wednesday, 22 June 2016

(1987) Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Easily excitable Neal Page (Steve Martin) is somewhat of a control freak. Trying to get home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his wife (Laila Robbins) and kids, his flight is rerouted to a distant city in Kansas because of a freak snowstorm, and his sanity begins to fray. Worse yet, he is forced to bunk up with talkative Del Griffith (John Candy), whom he finds extremely annoying. Together they must overcome the insanity of holiday travel to reach their intended destination.

(2011) Paul

For the past 60 years, a wisecracking alien named Paul (Seth Rogen) has resided at a top-secret military base in America's UFO heartland. When Paul decides he has had enough of Earth, he escapes from the compound and hops on the first handy vehicle - a rented RV manned by two British sci-fi nerds named Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost). With federal agents and the father of an accidental kidnap victim on their tail, the two hatch a crazy plan to help Paul return to his spaceship.

Tuesday, 21 June 2016

(2013) Prince Avalanche

Prince Avalanche is a 2013 comedy-drama film starring Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. It was directed by David Gordon Green, who also wrote the screenplay based on the 2011 Icelandic film Either Way (Á annan veg). The film was shot in Bastrop, Texas, after the Bastrop County Complex fire.

In 1988, an odd pair of sorts, meditative and stern Alvin (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend's brother, Lance (Emile Hirsch), dopey and insecure, leave the city behind to spend the summer in solitude repainting traffic lines down the center of a country highway ravaged by wildfire. As they sink into their job in the remarkable landscape, they learn more than they want to about each other and their own limitations. An unlikely friendship develops through humor and nasty exchanges, leading to surprising affection.



Friday, 10 June 2016

(2006) Little Miss Sunshine

The Hoover family - a man (Greg Kinnear), his wife (Toni Collette), an uncle (Steve Carell), a brother (Paul Dano) and a grandfather (Alan Arkin) - puts the fun back in dysfunctional by piling into a VW bus and heading to California to support a daughter (Abigail Breslin) in her bid to win the Little Miss Sunshine Contest. The sanity of everyone involved is stretched to the limit as the group's quirks cause epic problems as they travel along their interstate route.



Thursday, 9 June 2016

(1976) Kings of the Road

Kings of the Road (German: Im Lauf der Zeit) is a 1976 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. It was the third part of Wenders' "Road Movie Trilogy" which included Alice in the Cities (1974) and The Wrong Move (1975). It was the unanimous winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.
 
While traveling his route along the border between East and West Germany, projector repairman Bruno (Rüdiger Vogler) meets pediatrician Robert (Hanns Zischler) when the latter attempts suicide by driving his car into a shallow lake. From such off beginnings, the two form a genuine friendship as Robert accompanies Bruno on the road. They discuss the decline of German film, the hegemony of America culture and their challenging relationships with women before ultimately parting ways.



(1993) Kalifornia

Brian Kessler (David Duchovny) is a writer, and his girlfriend, Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes), is a photographer. They're working on a book about serial killers, and planning a trip across the country to document the sites of famous serial murders. To cut costs, they set up a ride-share with strangers, Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) and his girlfriend, Adele Corners (Juliette Lewis). But what they don't know is that Early is a violent sociopath in the middle of his own serial killing spree.

Friday, 3 June 2016

(1991) Highway 61

Pokey Jones (Don McKellar), a Canadian barber who plays jazz on the side, has his life turned upside down when a corpse turns up near his home. Jackie (Valerie Buhagier), a roadie, says that the dead man is her sibling and begs Pokey to help get the body back to New Orleans. Pokey agrees, completely unaware that Valerie's real plan is to transport drugs across the border. They are followed by the satanic Mr. Skin (Earl Pastko), who claims ownership of the body and the soul contained therein.

Saturday, 28 May 2016

(1998) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop (Gary Busey), he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

(1969) Easy Rider

Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper), two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth. On their journey, they experience bigotry and hatred from the inhabitants of small-town America and also meet with other travelers seeking alternative lifestyles. After a terrifying drug experience in New Orleans, the two travelers wonder if they will ever find a way to live peacefully in America.


Friday, 20 May 2016

Due Date (2010)

Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) will be a dad for the first time when his wife gives birth in five days. He intends to catch a flight home from Atlanta so he can be there for the delivery, but a chance encounter with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) throws a monkey wrench into his plans. Desperate to reach his wife before their baby is born, Peter's sanity is tested when he must take a road trip cross-country with dog-toting Ethan.

Sunday, 15 May 2016

(1982) Smithereens


Smithereens is a 1982 film directed by Susan Seidelman and starring Susan Berman, Brad Rinn, and punk rock icon Richard Hell. The film follows a narcissistic young woman from New Jersey who comes to New York City to join the punk subculture, only to find that it's gravitated towards Los Angeles; in order to pay her way across country, she engages in a number of parasitic relationships, shifting her allegiances to new "friends" in an ongoing effort to ultimately endear herself to someone who will finance her desired lifestyle.


Smithereens marked the debut of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) and features a score by The Feelies. It was the first American independent film invited to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Smithereens is a precursor to Seidelman's next film Desperately Seeking Susan and both films share similar themes of female identity and self-reinvention.


Smithereens is the story of Wren (Susan Berman), an independent spirit from New Jersey promoting herself into the New York punk scene. She meets Paul (Brad Rijn), who ran away from Montana and lives out of his van in a parking lot. Paul seems to offer genuine friendship, however, Wren is only interested in forming meaningless relationships in hopes of bolstering her nonexistent career. She has no musical talents or industry skills, yet she aggressively pursues a pathetic spot for herself in places like the Peppermint Lounge.


She drops Paul for Eric (Richard Hell, who also performs on the musical score), who has a record deal, and they work out a plan to escape to California, which requires Wren to pose as a prostitute in order to scam money from a prospective john. Things don't work out, and Wren finds herself hitting one wall after another, eventually getting kicked out of her apartment. With no place to go, Wren seeks out everyone she knows in the city, only to find herself left alone.


Sideways (2004)

Struggling writer and wine enthusiast Miles (Paul Giamatti) takes his engaged friend, Jack (Thomas Haden Church), on a trip to wine country for a last single-guy bonding experience. While Miles wants to relax and enjoy the wine, Jack is in search of a fling before his wedding. Soon Jack is sleeping with Stephanie (Sandra Oh), while her friend Maya (Virginia Madsen) connects with Miles. When Miles lets slip that Jack is getting married, both women are furious, sending the trip into disarray.

(1984) Paris, Texas

A disheveled man who wanders out of the desert, Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) seems to have no idea who he is. When a stranger manages to contact his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), Travis is awkwardly reunited with his sibling. Travis has been missing for years, and his presence unsettles Walt and his family, which also includes Travis's own son, Hunter (Hunter Carson). Soon Travis must confront his wife, Jane (Nastassja Kinski), and try to put his life back together.

Saturday, 14 May 2016

(1971) Two-Lane Blacktop

In this cult favorite road film, a mechanic (Dennis Wilson) and a driver (James Taylor) live only to race and maintain their 1955 Chevy. Heading east from California with no particular agenda, they give a girl (Laurie Bird) a ride, and en route she incites jealousy between the men by sleeping with them both. Meanwhile, the trio encounters an overbearing GTO driver (Warren Oates) who agrees to race them to New York, each side putting at stake their most prized possession: their car.

Monday, 17 August 2015

(2008) The Lucky Ones

When three very different U.S. soldiers find themselves on an unplanned road trip across America, they form a deep bond that may be the closest thing any of them has to real family. T.K. Poole, Colee Dunn and Fred Cheever arrive in New York from Germany only to find their connecting flights canceled due to a power outage. Anxious to get to their respective destinations, they agree to share a rented minivan to suburban St. Louis where Cheever is to reunite with his wife and teenage son. From there, the other two plan to fly to Las Vegas where the macho T.K. wants to make an important stop before seeing his fiancée and the tough yet naïve Colee plans to pay a visit to a fallen fellow-soldier's family. But, when Cheever's homecoming turns out to be a far cry from what he anticipated, the trio's one-day drive expands into an impromptu cross-country marathon. Along the way, they experience a string of surprising adventures ranging from the hilarious to the heartbreaking. As their interstate journey takes them from a barroom brawl to a high society dance to a bizarre Sunday morning church service, T.K., Colee and Cheever discover that home is not quite what they remembered and the unlikely companionship they've found in one another might be what matters most of all.

Directed By: Neil Burger