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.

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.

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