The Loneliest Road in America is an independent movie that uses the guise of a buddy road trip to mask social commentary. Contrary to what you see on screen, this isn’t about three friends on a trip to Los Angeles, at least that’s not just it. The three main characters all represent different conflicts between communities and corporations. I say this to you because unless I tell you this now, you are not going to get that out of this movie. Until I read the plot synopsis, I didn’t even get that out of this movie. Without this information, The Loneliest Road in America just becomes a low budget movie about annoying characters where nothing of any interest really happens.
Colin Michael Day stars as Jamie, a college graduate who has gone on to the prosperous life of bartending after college (note the sarcasm). He's stuck with a dead end job and a really over-the-top suffocating relationship with girlfriend Amanda (Jennifer Devereaux). Sick of it, he and his college best friend Matt (Chris Hayes) go on a road trip to Los Angeles, to find a new job and to meet up with another old college buddy named Gerard (Isaiah Musik-Ayala).
While Jamie has been floundering, Matt has been living the dream, making money and never quite outgrowing his frat boy persona. On the way, Matt picks up Ashley (Abby Leigh), an acquaintance from college (get it — they all went to college together), and Jamie and Ashley begin to fall for one another as they drive along a stretch of highway known as “The Loneliest Road in America” in Nevada. This highway is filled with ghost towns and abandoned buildings, which were once prosperous during the mining boom, but once corporations began to move their interests into Canada and other countries, the towns became decrepit and all but forgotten. As they visit each town, they (and the viewer) get a glimpse into the evils of corporate greed and the effects of exploitation.
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Article comments
1 - Jorah Wexler
Dynamite Bob has no speaking lines. He sits at the end of the bar out of focus. The character that you are talking about is Lewis and he is played by Craig Rose. So please give him the credit that he deserves, especially if you like his performance during the bar scene. Also, the URL to the website doesn't work. You have it listed down as www.loneliestoradinamerica.com when it is really www.loneliestroadinamerica.com.
2 - Jonathan Sullivan
My apologies on that, I forgot the o when I was typing the URL. Also, I didn't catch Lewis' name and he uttered a line someone mentioned Dynamite Bob uttering when they were scouting (in the press stuff) so I put two and two together.
I do apologize on those two fronts.
3 - NC Weil
I didn't see the whole movie because my husband & I walked out after about half an hour. What struck me most is that the characters exist in a bubble of privilege in which they do not interact with their surroundings - the whole point of a road trip is to interact with your surroundings! I longed for them to have serious car trouble in the middle of nowhere so they'd have to deal with actual people - maybe eventually that happens, but by then we were out of there. If in half an hour a movie can't produce a character one wants to spend time with, nor a story arc with some dynamism, it's a failure which deserves no more of our attention.
The pervasive misogyny (not just characters but probably the filmmaker) was not just offensive but depressing.