Do you hear it? The call of the highway? Whispering of adventure, discovery and the sweet taste of gas station coffee? The road beckons, and through the wonders of technology, you can now travel it from the comfort of your own home! Why muck about on some dirty backroad when you could watch someone else do it from the safety of your living room sofa? Adventure might be calling, but you can let the machine get it. Sit back, relax, and don’t even think about leaving your hometown – just tune in to the ten best road movies of the 21st century. Just because Kerouac was bumming around 20th century interstates doesn’t mean you have to. Learn from history, don’t repeat it.
Motorcycle Diaries
Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries shows a lesser seen side of one of the most infamous revolutionary figures in history: Che Guevara. According to this film, before becoming embroiled in political upheaval and guerrilla warfare, Che Guevara was a just another young man looking for his place in the world. Accompanied by his friend Alberto Granado, the pair took a motorcycle trip across South America – departing from Buenos Aires with the goal to work at a leper colony in Peru. As road-trippers are wont to do, they get a little sidetracked along the way. A coming of age portrait of a polarizing political figure, The Motorcycle Diaries provides a non-judgmental glimpse into the makings of a revolutionary, spurred on by his experiences of poor indigenous communities across the continent.
Will & Harper
A tender portrait of lifelong friendship, Will & Harper is a documentary by Josh Greenbaum that follows actor Will Ferrell and writer Harper Steele on a roadtrip across the United States. Beginning in New York City with an SNL cast reunion sendoff, the pair travel to D.C. and the midwest before finally making their way to California. While the film is lighthearted and full of laughs, it doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities that trans Americans face – particularly when leaving the relative safety of queer friendly cities and towns. Along the way, they meet people from all walks of life, SNL stars, dive bar dwellers, and other trans people on similar journeys of self-discovery and self-acceptance. An emotional watch, the documentary is ultimately a life affirming study of finding oneself, and those who bear witness to the journey.
Nomadland
Directed by Chloé Zhao, Nomadland is a glimpse into the live of America’s transient community – vanlifers and people who live full time in vehicles. The plot follows a middle aged woman named Fern, who packs her life up into a 2001 Ford Econoline after the death of her husband the loss of her job. After bouncing around the west taking seasonal gig work, she finds community in the Arizona desert, where a group of vehicle dwellers have gathered to share their knowledge and skills. The film is ultimately study in grief, and the healing Fern hopes to find at the end of a long highway. The trouble is, now matter how far you go, you always bring yourself with you. It’s a story of acceptance of life’s hardships – at the end of the day, only thing we can do is keep on keeping on.
Y Tu Mama También
Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mama También might just be the greatest road movie ever made – full stop. Taking place in Mexico, the story follows two privileged teenage boys who decide to spend their last summer before college doing… whatever teenage boys do: mostly involves jerking off into swimming pools and sleeping around. While at a party thrown by one of their hoity-toity families, they meet a woman in her late 20’s and are immediately smitten. In order to impress her, they tell her they’re going on a very mature and adult roadtrip to “Boca del Cielo” – a place they just made up. For reasons they don’t understand (but soon will) the woman agrees to go with them, and the trio embark on a coming of age journey of debauched sexuality and life affirming joy. It’s a deeply moving film about the inherent transience of life. Your friends, your relationships, your life as you know it will never be the same moment to moment – better enjoy it while it lasts.
Into The Wild
Directed by Sean Penn, Into The Wild is a biographical drama about the life of Chris McCandless – a modern American legend. Born into a privileged family, McCandless donated his trust fund to charity and left home in his old Datsun – leaving his parents and sister behind. The film explores the years McCandless spend wandering the country before his final, doomed trip into the Alaskan wilderness. Two years after he left, McCandless was found dead in an abandoned bus near Denali National Park – his life cut short by the wild he so loved. Years after his death, McCandless legacy is still hotly debated. Was he a naive free spirit? A selfish loner? Or maybe just a young person looking for his place in the world? According to this film, he was a little bit of all these things – and so much more.
Little Miss Sunshine
Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine is the tragicomic story of a beautiful, dysfunctional family. Richard is an aspiring motivational speaker, his son in law is a wannabe Nietzsche who’s taken a vow of silence, his dad was kicked out of the retirement home for snorting heroine, his little girl wants to be a beauty queen, his suicidal brother in law is coaching her, and his wife is trying to hold them all together. When his daughter learns about the “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty pageant 800 miles away, the family packs up into a Volkswagen van to get her to the competition. Crammed together like sardines, the family learns to live with and love one another – despite their seemingly irreconcilable differences. Part tear-jerker, part heart-warmer, this film is proof that blood flows thicker than water – though the waterworks flow nonetheless.
Nebraska
Alexander Payne’s Nebraska is a somber study of the life of Woody Grant, an elderly man on a cross country quest to become a millionaire. After being arrested for walking down the side of the highway, Woody is picked up by his son David – who learns that his father was trying walk to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim a winning sweepstakes ticket. Trouble is, David is 99% sure the “million dollar prize” is a big ol’ scam. Unconvinced, the curmudgeon insists on completing the trek, and David decides to come along for the ride. The tone is similar to gold standard roadtrip movie Paris, Texas – a tender tale of estrangement and the family ties that bind. Woody wasn’t a good dad, but David still loves him anyway. And despite Woody’s emotionally distant nature, it becomes pretty clear he loves David too.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Most roadtrip movies are about self-discovery, freedom, and the desire to shake off life’s dust. In George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, dust is all there is. And bullets! Lots of those too. In the post-apocalyptic wasteland formally known as Australia, brutal warlords compete for dwindling resources aided by their cult-like followers. Spurred on by vehicle-worship that borders upon religious fervor, the wastelanders will go to any lengths to secure guns and gas. After being captured by the warlord Immortan Joe, lone wolf Max is taken to Joe’s oasis home, and made a prisoner alongside the warlord’s captive wives. Desperate to escape, Max joins up with one Joe’s top lieutenants attempting a jailbreak of her own – bringing Joe’s wives (and his wrath) along for the ride. Featuring some of the most jaw dropping practical stunts ever filmed and a killer heavy metal soundtrack, Fury Road is pure, unleaded, fuel injected fun.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Who says you need a car for a road film? The Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? delivers all the wonders of the highway on foot! Fresh from a jailbreak, three former chain-gangers are given a new lease on life when they hear rumors of buried treasure somewhere in the Depression Era South. Winding their way on an epic journey that’s loosely based on The Odyssey, they meet Bible-thumping cyclopses, corn whiskey pouring sirens, and a talented young guitarist who sold his soul to the devil. It’s a tale of biblical proportions (and references) soundtracked by one of the greatest scores ever put to film – “Man of Constant Sorrow” remains a folk banger decades later.
The Road
O Brother, Where Art Thou proved you don’t need a car to make a good road movie, and John Hillcoat’s The Road took that to heart – while breaking ours. Adapted from a literary emotional hurricane by Cormac McCarthy, The Road is the story of an unnamed father and son wheeling a shopping cart down a post apocalyptic highway. The roadside attractions (repulsions, really) are many – cannibal killers, wandering thieves, raving lunatics, Armageddon takes all kinds. It’s a devastating, terrifying film about the depths of human depravity, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of a howling abyss. This film is anything but feel good, but you’ll feel things nonetheless.
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