The Long Dumb Road

source: The Long Dumb Road

The film is at its strongest when it plays with the two leads, and falls slightly when it introduces the convoluted subplots. The leads play of each other quite well. This is how indie films should be made, but I feel this was poorly distributed and vanished without a trace. The film deserves to be seen and if you're reading this, it's well worth a watch

Story is about a young guy off to college who gives a lift to a slightly older guy who fixes his car for him. The older guy has lived a life and the younger one has lived a sheltered one. It's pretty standard mix matched strangers thrust together and falling out but needing each other so staying together fayre. There are some genuinely funny parts and some parts that are suppose to be funny but fall apart. The unexpected part when (Ron Livingston) gives them a lift is an unexpected twist that you sort of see coming The ending though is rubbish. They say goodbye and that's it. No being reunion at the end of the film. It also just ends with the older guy playing a slot machine while credits role. That's it. He doesn't even win millions from it. Overall it had the potential to be a great film but ended up as an okay film. Despite this, I actually enjoyed it. I would never watch it again but glad I did.

Wow. I've seen a few like this. "Comedies" that I really liked but haven't a funny joke that landed in the entire film. The only thing that drew me to this movie was my latest obsession to horror movies, so I wanted to change it up and watch a "comedy" for once. Helped when I saw the poster. I love Jason Mantzoukas and Tony Revolori, the "driver," is so cute. So, I thought, here'll be a funny road-trip film. Nope. This movie is as funny as 2020's virus. BUT, that said, it's still a charming drama with two leads with enormous chemistry. That and how well the movie was shot and progressed was worth the trip. The move's a simple one: Nat needs to drive from Texas to LA to attend art school. While his future is supposedly planned out for him from his parents, apparently, they didn't plan for the vehicle they gave him to break down in the middle of Nowhere, TX. Lucky, or unluckily, for him, Random-Stranger Richard's there to save the day, fix the vehicle and they start a journey together of "self-discovery" across the Southwest. I guess. The Long Dumb Road admittedly had me smirking and smiling a lot and I loved the ending, tremendously. I just wish it was funny. It's not like a lot of the "comedy" flew over my head; I seriously didn't hear hardly any jokes. Just two bros who share a ride to their respective destinies. And along the way they have a few misadventures with sad results. You MIGHT feel sorry for them, but we know who's to blame. I would recommend it, but it's not groundbreaking and for the 20th time: it's not a comedy. So, don't expect one. But, DO expect a nice adventure with two leads who definitely share a real bond. And that was nice to see. *** Final thoughts: Funny, this movie, while not providing a future, did have an impact on me and I loved watching it, despite its shortcomings. Nice to see they give these two established and good actors leads. We need to see more of them.

I love my road movies, but this one had absolutely nothing in that category to make it interesting. Sadly I watch "The Dead Don't Die" right before this and wasted over 3 hours of pointless bantering as it's the exact movie in a different genre. I miss the days of good writers, I'm not sure if these movies are actors attempt at writing their roles separately, but theses movies are unnecessary as they will only be watched once in their existence. These movies are not fit for TV, special editions, remakes, reboots or re-watches. If Bill is so picky of the movies he does I'd love to know why he decided on this one. HEY! Bill Murray, I got a perfect script for you, give me a shout :)

I actually just created an account because I saw a lot of people talk about how they weren't a fan of the ending but I personally really enjoyed the ending because of the realism. Not everything is a happy ending in real life, not that it was an unhappy ending, but to me this seems like something that would actually happen. They didn't go the stereotypical route and in the end they Didn't become best friends and he gets the girl that he met on the road.... Everyone went their own way

There is one big negative about this film that I want to talk about up front. The cinematography is very harsh, overexposed in a lot of places. I am sure it is a function of the budget but the sharpness of the image and the overall texture of the colors is really too hard for the underlying material. The tonal dissonance robs the film of some emotions. The direction-i.e. framing, staging, blocking-itself is quite good. The director manages to find a different style for shooting scenes in a moving car and she consistently uses it to great effective. The film's pace just moves and the overall cinematic quality of the film is quite good. I just wish they used a softer lighter palette. It is not enough of an issues to prevent full enjoyment of the film. The script is quite good. It manages to be funny and touching while never falling completely into either cliche or contrivance. There are common road trip film beats present-i.e. car breaks down, bar fight, rekindling of old relationships, theft etc. but they are all configured to be more organic and realistic than they usually are. The film's greatest strength is it places character before broad humor. So much of the hi-jinks comes from Richard being an glorious hot mess in a way that is so common. This was a very nice find.

...but it seriously fizzled out at the end. Plus, so many corny scenes that made no sense, like when they stole the Prius, you think the owner or his wife didn't call the police? Actually the more I think about the film the more painful it feels. Richard would have been dumped on the side of the road by anyone else, a lot earlier on. It was the long, dumb movie. What a shame.

This is an average indie movie with decent acting and a basic script. Pretty much like a poor version of Due Date, I would strongly recommend watching that instead if you haven't seen it yet. Not very realistic, but pretty much what people would fear picking up a hitch hiker. Appearances from Grace Gummer and Taissa Farmiga, which kind of gives you something to look forward to. Overall I wouldn't have high expectations watching this, so hopefully that helps.

Always been a fan of Jason Mandoukis and his style of quirky comedy ever since the league. I like his style of comedy and all the actors actually did a great job. Ending could have been a bit better then I would have rated it higher but still a solid 6.7