As exorbitant gas prices transform our cultural landscape both metaphorically and physically, can we afford the spiritual and economic toll for yet another road trip movie?
Most cross-country jaunts telegraph their every move, the on-the-nose map archs have been predetermined and the destination is as predictable as the archetype, so its gratifying to find a vibrant version that’s pulsing with discovery and possibility.
Martin Hynes‘ – where did this revelatory filmmaker come from? – limber freewheelin’ T-Ford model of the road experience is particularly special in its lush cinematography, emotional turns, beguiling detours and unexpected comedic surprises.
Lou Pucci Taylor plays an anxious 19-year-old named Mercer who, eight months after his mother’s death, suddenly steals a car and travels across the west coast trying to track down his estranged older half-brother Arlen so he can notify him of the tragic news.
The melancholy set-up unpeels like an onion as layers of the mystery are slowly unveiled to us. We only discover the vehicle is stolen because the owner, Kate, (Zooey Deschanel) calls her cell phone that’s still in the car (later down the road, we realize she knows his name and who he is).
Instead of threatening to call the police, instead she offers him a curious deal: use the car until he’s done on one condition – that he call her with updates about the trip along the way. And so off on this unusual little adventure he goes.
Along the travelogue Mercer bumps into a host of characters that lie in the wake of his brothers personal wreckage – the philosophical pornographer (“Tell Arlen that I won’t be pressing charges,” is his introduction to the character), the libertarian black American cowboy (the amazing Bill Duke) who urges him to defend himself with arms of any kind, and the ornery potter who pops him in the mouth at the mere mention of his brother’s name (“You’re Arlen’s brother? This is for the [tool] snap ons,” he says matter of factly as he clocks him in the face; brilliantly played by a hilarious Nick Offerman who has a total of three roles in the film).
With his mother deceased its rather fitting that the film is flush with female characters that support his journey – there’s the kooky hippie in Oregon (a perfect deer-in-headlights stoned Judy Greer), the rebellious teenager in Reno (Jena Malone) the L.A. tough broad pet store worker whose ramshackle band plays to kids as part of their community service (Maura Tierney) and of course Zooey who is as winsome and engaging as the story itself.
After quickly learning his brother isn’t exactly the most popular person on earth and that Arlen’s not in Oregon, each clue to his whereabouts leads to a new city and new adventure usually anchored by the aforementioned oddballs and matrons along the way.
Montages to music are quickly becoming exhausted, but with driving tunes (M. Ward, Elliott Smith, the Black Keys) and balmy energy, Hynes makes them come to life once again. Also, the music is integral and perfectly underscores the lachrymose wanderlust tone.
Throughout the trip, we infer how deeply Mercer has taken his mother’s death cause whenever her name pops up he invents some story of what she’s up to (at one point claiming she has sled dogs in Alaska), that are both amusing and heartbreaking.
A few conceits don’t work, the homagistic nod to the iconic and happenstance dance sequence in Godard’s “Band of Outsiders” is a little too much and too twee, but more often than not all the cinematic tricks work with wonderful allure.
“The Go-Getter” is the rare “quirky” indie film that feels naturally loopy rather imbuing the qualities of insufferable preciousness that many fey and twee indies tend to convey. And that “arrive late, leave early” construction of clipped scenes make the script a screenwriters wet dream to behold (especially since the film feels so loose, improvised and tossed off – yet it was carefully orchestrated).
In the tradition of “All The Real Girls” or “Thumbsucker,” this modest little travelogue is guilelessly honest, endearingly winning and romantically sweet. “The Go-Getter” might be like a real-life date with Zooey for the heavily skeptical – at first you might not buy this kooky chicks deal, but by the end your smitten, enchanted and your pants are totally charmed off.
The trip on the road to nowhere is an American model with an excess of mileage and cliched wear and tear so its invigorating and deeply satisfying to find a refreshing and worthy new edition to the genre. [A]
“The Go-Getter” opens this Friday (June 6) in only 4 cities in very limited run (Toronto, Portland, New York and Los Angeles). Go support this film so it can expand into different markets and get the wider exposure it so rightly deserves. Here’s the trailer again.