The Long Dumb Road (2018)

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Flack
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The Long Dumb Road (2018)

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19-year-old Nathan ("Nat") is a sheltered high-school graduate from an upper-middle class family who has just been accepted to art school and has embarked on his first solo road trip from Texas to California. Not long into his trip his minivan breaks down, which is how he crosses path with Richard, a 40-year-old mechanic who's good at fixing cars but bad at most other things, especially relationships. Recently out of a job and hoping to get to Vegas, Richard hitches a ride with Nat after fixing his van for free. Nat agrees to drop Richard off at a bus stop 45 minutes away, but when the station turns out to be abandoned, Nat agrees to deliver Richard to Vegas.

Richard, it turns out, is full of bad ideas. Before the two can make it to the bus stop, Richard has already started drinking and smoking weed in the passenger seat. When the two get crossways with some locals at a drive bar, Nat apologizes profusely while Richard instead decides to sucker punch a redneck before running like hell to escape. The following evening, the two decide to drop in on Richard's high school sweetheart (whom he hasn't spoken with in 20 years) and profess his love to her. When that goes "less than well," the two meet a pair of sisters at another bar and in a matter of hours Richard has professed his love to one of them and proposes to her, again with disastrous results. Before long Nat's car bites the dust, the two have been robbed at gunpoint, and either of the two men arriving at their final destination seems impossible.

Like most road trip movies, the success of the film relies heavily on the two leads. Nat is the one we're supposed to relate to, the somewhat naive kid who's a little too trustworthy, idealist, and is getting taken advantage of. Richard is the sad but funny grifter, a guy who orders drinks knowing he can't pay for them and somehow makes you feel good about picking up the tab (at least the few dozen times). Here Ricard is the elder, sharing his wisdom and knowledge with a kid he's taken under his wing, but it doesn't take long to realize that Richard has never made a good decision in his life. As the sad clown, it's tough to like Richard and rooting for him is fruitless. Each time Richard talks Nat into something, and even when Nat talks Richard into something, things go horribly wrong. This movie is not about the formation of a lifelong friendship; it's just two guys who came together, drove west, and eventually went their own way.

Tony Revolori as Nat does a good job at portraying the doe-eyed teen heading out on his own, and Jason Mantzoukas's energy as Richard keeps viewers wondering what exactly he'll do next. Ron Livingston, Casey Wilson, and several other actors make appearances as characters enter, re-enter, and exit Nat and Richard's journey.

IMDB gives this one a 6.1/10 and I'd give it a 3.5. Instead of exaggerating the comedy and making things over the top, The Long Dumb Road plays it safe by keeping everything realistic except the decisions of the two main characters.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Re: The Long Dumb Road (2018)

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

I would watch this. Tony Revolori as Flash Thompson in the new Spider-Man movies is possibly the greatest miscasting in cinema history, so it follows that he looks great in this. I think I have seen Jason Mantzoukas in a lot of things but remembered him until know, where I remember him.

I shall now do my diligence to see where it is streaming, so I can see it. (This is a comment about how fragmented streaming is, which is fine.)
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Flack
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Re: The Long Dumb Road (2018)

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I mostly know Mantzoukas from the podcast How Did This Get Made, but he's been in a bunch of movies and done a bunch of voice acting gigs. He was in that new History of the World Part II series, he's been on Drunk History, he was in Dirty Grandpa... my kids knew him best from the show Parks and Recreation.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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