You Think We’re in Ohio Yet? Road Movie Nominating/Voting Thread - VOTING CLOSES MIDNIGHT, MAY 15th

I picked up American Honey from the library today thanks to this poll, even though I'm nervous about it (Shia + something about it just gives off Larry Clark vibes to me) and while I was there, I also grabbed L'Avventura and Gun Crazy, neither of which I've ever seen.

Beyond that, trying to prioritize what I re/watch. There are a few movies (Paper Moon, Wild Strawberries) which I haven't seen in a long while, but I remember loving enough that including them here is a no-brainer. There are others (Bonnie and Clyde, It Happened One Night) that I remember liking a lot, but saw long enough ago that my memory is fuzzy. And then there's something like Easy Rider, which I liked okay the one time I saw it years ago, and which might plausibly benefit from another look.

And while the campaigning/voting window is completely reasonable, this poll also comes around just as I am in the last weeks of preparing for my final qualifying exam, which is held the day after ballots are due. So, while I'd love to just binge on as many of these movies as possible right now, I can realistically only afford the time to watch one movie every couple of days until its time to submit.

I'll be tabulating votes and putting images together the weekend after the 11th, cs, so feel free to submit on the weekend, if that helps.

I saw the 4-5 hour cut of Until the End of the World last year. I really liked the sci-fi half. Just checked what I posted at the time, and I called the first half "a rag-tag, elephantine road movie"--so yes, it belongs! (Probably a little harsh.) I think that's the fourth Wenders film on the list, and there are no doubt others, too.

Is Jonathan Demme on the list? Something like Melvin and Howard has the feel of a road film, and there's the great opening scene with Dummar and Hughes in the car, but that might be a stretch. I don't know about Handle with Care/Citizen's Band, which I haven't seen in ages.

Found two books on the subject.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/road%20books_zpskulr0i8b.jpg

Don't know anything about either, but I ordered a copy of the one on the right from Abe that was three times cheaper than the overpriced Amazon copy. Won't get here in time to be of any help in catching omissions, but the indices for both are on Amazon, so I'm going to try to skim through them on the weekend.

Demme on the road: Something Wild

Yeah, dumb question--that was one of the first to go on the list. I just added about 20 more from those two indices (things I'd already come across mention of elsewhere).

I suppose they need to be pretty well-known to make the nomination list, so maybe only one of mine qualifies:

Güeros
The Bird People in China
The Passenger

Pop Aye (2017)

A man and his elephant walk into a bar: well, not quite -- but close. POP AYE is the story of a successful Bangkok architect whose late-midlife crisis leads him to an encounter with the elephant (Pop Aye) with whom he spent an idyllic childhood in the Thai countryside. Together they embark on a road trip to deliver both man and beast to their origins. The local police cite him for not having a permit to travel with an elephant; a transgendered prostitute joins him in a karaoke duet at a roadside dive; and a poetic, possibly delusional, pauper offers companionship. But the real star is the big guy: Pop Aye lumbers along with great dignity and endless fortitude. He is the center of a mysterious, funny and often absurd universe that while seemingly particular to Thailand is, ultimately, not unlike our own.

The genre lives on, it seems! Coming soon to Film Forum.

I suppose they need to be pretty well-known to make the nomination list

No way! I mean, it's unlikely that something super-obscure will make the final top howevermanywe'redoing, but nominating is a great way to get other people to check out things you like.

tati - trafic

haven't seen in ages & not entirely sure if it fits, but: bunuel's the milky way?

Milky Way is on the list.

so it is: sub with goodbye pork pie

I haven't seen Holy Motors but isn't it, like, all set in a car?

Mind you, I also keep perversely wanting to nominate Fitzcarraldo and I know that doesn't actually fit, so feel free to ignore any of my suggestions.

Oh, one thing: you've got Sightseers missing an 's' from the end on the nominations list.

Not Holy Motors, but there is the Croenenberg with Robert Pattison?

Crash?

I kid, I kid, though that is, er, a road movie of sorts. No, I looked it up and you mean Cosmopolis, which I think I might actually have been entirely conflating in my head with Holy Motors?

Important book from 1982

http://68.media.tumblr.com/4106ce1889cfd59fee679303291cdb7c/tumblr_ol5sxew1NI1ucnbv4o1_500.png

Was about to suggest Goodbye Pork Pie

A couple more nominations:

Slow West
Leningrad Cowboys Go America

Thanks. The list is up over 200 now, most of which passed the "(title) + road movie" Google test. Nominations technically close Monday, but that's fluid. I would like to finish up by mid-month, so hopefully ballots will start to trickle in next week. There are a few copies of that book on Abe--new ones expensive, used about half that.

This is such an amorphous genre. When voting in the comedy poll, I could always fall back on "Does this film make me laugh?"; in the horror poll, "Does this film scare me?" (or, sometimes, "Does this film look great and creep me out?"). Here it's something like "Does this film capture my restlessness and vague feelings of unfulfillment in an atmospherically elliptical way--and do people drive a lot?"

I really want to see Eight Miles High.

http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/2007_Eight_Miles_High/007EMH_Natalia_Avelon_004.jpg

"Does this film capture my restlessness and vague feelings of unfulfillment in an atmospherically elliptical way--and do people drive a lot?"

Results thread title

As I said, keeps my mind off work.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/poster_zpszjqxih7n.jpg

it's a shame the true winner The Dog of the South is a book.

Some more:

La Nuit de Varennes
Stagecoach
Kill List
On the Road
Arigato-san (Mr. Thank You)
The Motorcycle Diaries
Race with the Devil
Detour (1945)

Haven't seen Detour, but sounds like a solid noir. It's up on youtube, will watch.

I guess this never happened:

http://filmschoolrejects.com/hilarity-ensues-bill-hader-greg-mottola-adapting-dog-of-the-south-e9227032291e

Does it have lots of unexpected enounters?

Yes, almost all of which involve the protagonist being mocked.

Probably for the best that never worked out. In a perfect world the Coens would do it with Goodman as Symes.

I don't know if I've seen enough of these to come up with a decent list, but I rewatched Cold Fever recently and really enjoyed it, I'd seen it at age 15 or so and was a little concerned it would be painfully quirky but it holds up.

An abbreviated ballot of 10 (maybe 15 points each?) is fine.

Just rewatched The Milky Way in preparation for voting, got Wanda lined up for later in the week.

I think I might just be squeezing into the nominating deadline, but to add to the 'no driving but surely a road movie' list - I nominate El Topo.

By the way, I'm assuming the Breathless that's on the list is A Bout de Souffle and not the American remake, right? I don't want to accidentally vote for the remake.

Likewise with Vanishing Point.

I assume originals unless otherwise stated.

Yes for both (didn't realize they remade Vanishing Point...I have the original on DVD but still haven't watched it).

Always had it in my mind that Jack Nicholson's Drive, He Said must be a road movie, but evidently not.

I think you'll be really impressed by Wanda.

Second the Wanda rec, I saw it on cable when I first got it and was really impressed (with the movie and with cable TV in general for unlocking such a vast archive that would otherwise be unavailable) but as the years progressed cable TV just drifted more and more into lowest common denominator shit.

I want to nominate Basilicata Coast to Coast, but it's going to get crossed off my list pretty early.

The remake of Vanishing Point is... not great. It's tries to tie in with the 90s-era militia movement and... bleh.

The only vote will come from me, so I'll post my favourite road-movie still here:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/sugarland_zpsjceqdg6p.jpg

I don't think I've ever encountered anyone, here or elsewhere, who loves that film as much as I do. I suspect it's still relatively (i.e., for a Spielberg film) unseen. Kael's review, which I'd read before I ever saw the film, undoubtedly influenced me a lot there.

I tried to track it down for this poll, but neither my library nor my On Demand selection has it.

It was around in remainder bins a few years ago, but I haven't seen it recently. It won't help you for the poll, but I'm pretty sure I bought an extra copy at the time that I could send along if you're really interested in seeing it.

Yeah, if you have an extra, I'll definitely take it! Need me to email you with my info, or do you still have it?

Thanks a bunch!

Went through my stash of doubles, and I guess I gave it to someone at some point. But I'll keep an eye open; I still see it around.

And, while I wouldn't vote for it, Magical Mystery Tour must count...
emil.y

I've never seen it, but I just came across this line in Dreaming the Beatles: "And what does it mean that their next project without Brian was a road movie?"

I just saw that its gonna be on TCM on Friday! Scarecrow as well. The night's theme is "Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. I'll be PVRing both.

(whether or not I'll be able to squeeze all of these in by the deadline is another matter. I just grabbed Paris, Texas and Stranger Than Paradise from the library, and I still haven't watched L'Avventura yet)

Excellent. May rewatch Scarecrow myself.

Wow, so Wanda is truly a great film. Very beautiful pacing, and I found Loden's performance really moving.

Love the non-ending.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-76PV0XanjUA/U0Rn96uZcpI/AAAAAAAAAnI/F3T5ahqqQt0/s1600/Wanda+9.png

First two ballots shared five films, one which I would have said looks like a cheesy '90s American film that I guess is much better than that--just ordered it off of Amazon.

I'm gonna be trying to squeeze in a film a day until the due date, but I'm not sure if I'll get to 25. How do I structure the points if I want to submit a ballot of, say, 20?

That's 80% of 200, so 160 points? But if you want to split up the full 200, no big deal.

As pointed out above, TCM tonight:

8:00 PM – The Sugarland Express (1974)
An ex-convict springs her husband from prison to keep their child from being adopted

11:45 PM – Scarecrow (1973)
Two hitchhikers with wildly different backgrounds become fast friends.

(Doesn't appear to be a road movie, but it's actually the film between those two I want to watch, Jerry Schatzberg's Sweet Revenge. Came out in '76--never even heard of it, to my surprise.)

Typically conked out--I'm basically the "I'm tired, I'm tired" Cuckoo's Nest guy these days. I watched about the first third of Sugarland Express, took a break before Sweet Revenge, fell asleep and missed the beginning, didn't even try to last for Scarecrow. Loved this one shot in Sugarland Express:

http://cdn1-www.comingsoon.net/assets/uploads/1970/01/file_571671_sugarland-express-movie-club-old-couple-1142012-235502.jpg

Yes, the real purpose of this post is as a reminder: need ballots!

Voted!

Great. That's five, including me--still hoping for 20.

The road, it's a lonely place.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/empty%20road_zpsw5yf6eyq.jpg

Because I can't deal with numbers right now--my mathematical incompetence + this week's stress has left my brain fried--would it be cool if I just sent you a list of 15 and then you can assign points accordingly? Obviously, I don't care much about point distribution, just that I like my #1 film better than my #9 film and so forth (and even that I'm not all that fussy about).

That's no problem. Actually, if you take 120 points, 15 + 14 + 13 ... + 1 works out to exactly 120.

This Like Crazy is in Italian - two women from mental facility take car on the road. It's being presented as new here in Los Angeles.

Also, I just sent my ballot via your ILX email.

Got it--thanks, appreciate that.

Oh! That's great. I'll get this to you tomorrow, then (one more thing I wanna rewatch first).

Just sent one in there. Didn't say but just weight it equally, 1 most points to 25 least ta

Would you like me to change the title to give a finishing date for ballots?

Thanks, that'd be great: midnight, May 15.

or something: 25-1 doesn't work--it adds up to 325 points. I sent you an alternative, see if that works.

Watched The Scarecrow (1973) for this last night. Previously unaware of it, shared the grand prize at Cannes. Hackman and a nice comic turn from Pacino, beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. A happy find.

Also saw Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker. William Talman (the DA on Perry Mason) has a great time playing the baddie.

nobody's mentioned "Dumb and Dumber" yet.

It's in the nomination list.

http://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Vo7swLaeS1ZCbciqrHKrSzlOm-DozyZBi_lpKIGGtI/edit

Emil.y and cryptsicko, wherever I may find them: we're on the clock now--get those damn ballots in! I do appreciate that you're putting care and thought into this. But if your third favourite is actually your fifth favourite, or if you leave off something that should have been #22, it's not a big deal. On the road of life, this poll is but a five-minute detour for drive-through coffee in the middle of Wisconsin.

Hoping for those two, plus two more--that'd be 20.

Coming up shortly! Btw, I read 'midnight, May 15th' as being midnight tomorrow, not midnight tonight, if you get what I mean?

Okay, sent. I actually ended up with too many films that I wanted to put on the list, but I think it's a solid ballot in the end.

Yeah, I goofed there--meant midnight tonight, which is more accurately the 14th.

xp
Yeah, I had about eight that I finally decided to cut, so I didn't end up giving a lot of films 1 or 2 points.

It's coming! After dinner + walking the dogs, I'm watching one more road movie, just in time to squeeze the ballot in before midnight.

One more road movie for the road...

Voted with three mins to spare. In my haste, I forgot the points breakdown but the one you quoted to me upthread works.

Here's a surprise: the actor to appear in the most number of films on my ballot is Randy Quaid.

Thanks, everyone. I'll get images ready the next couple of nights, then do #40-21 on Wednesday, #20-1 on Thursday. Nineteen ballots, so just missed 20. I won't start embedding text into images until tomorrow night; I'm working from an easily updateable spreadsheet, so if any ballots show up overnight or through the day tomorrow, I'll count them.

Really looking forward to the images in the countdown! Realised I forgot Something Wild on my ballot so hoping others didn't.

Something Wild was one of the ones I cut. Kind of a Sophie's Choice with each of them.

Sent!

Which was the elusive 20th ballot I was hoping for--thanks...#41-50 are strong, so I'll do #50-31 on Wednesday, #30-11 on Thursday, and the Top 10 on Friday. I want to do it during the day, which'll mean posting from work; the posts will be half-an-hour apart, but I'll get everything set up ahead of time so I can work that. ("Teacher, teacher--" "Just give me 15 seconds here.")