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

They go to pick up some Huggies...

apologies for dallying, rather than posting my ballot, but two that I very much love and had overlooked: Coogan/Brydon's The Trip and The Trip to Italy.

Wait, what? Isn't that a TV series? Did they make a film too?

Hey, The Straight Story sits at #1,000 right now on TSPDT's big list:

http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.php

xp

yes, both series were edited and released as films. that's the way I saw them. loved them enough that I will eventually get around to watching the original episodes.

Just finished Stroszek, which I hadn't seen since '79 or '80. I remember that my university roommate and I thought it was pretty much the damnedest thing we'd ever seen. I'm sure that whatever print we saw wasn't nearly as beautiful as what I lifted off YouTube.

The bank guy reminded me a lot of Harold Ramis in the earliest SCTV episodes. Like some of the Wenders films from the same era, felt like a European attempt at one of the early '70s American attempts at a '60s European art film. Which probably sounds negative, but no, not at all--liked it a lot. The ending was like a perfect mix of Fassbinder and Five Easy Pieces. Was just reminded of the Ian Curtis connection.

Made me feel nostalgic for that first viewing. I would have 18 or 19--everything was new, everything was ahead.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n35PfUpWyak/SeM4xSxyOdI/AAAAAAAANIw/NarqzAm1XSY/s1600-h/Stroszek+6.JPG

"would have been"

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

It's a lovely film, but like Goin' Down The Road, one of those that doesn't feature quite enough road to qualify as a road movie for me. But then again, at this point, I gotta stop being so picky if I'm ever gonna get a ballot together.

Actual on-the-road footage probably totals two or three minutes. But I think emotionally it fits perfectly--unhappiness, leaving one bad situation and finding something just as bad or worse--and some of those road shots look incredible.

Completely fits the emotional character for me because Stroszek is permanently out of place. Even if most of the travel happens offscreen America seems to be arbitrarily moving around him and his 'family' and home are ultimately transitory. Also for me the most poignant scenes all happen on the road: driving out of New York, Eva leaving with the truckers, the house driven off, Stroszek's final drive.

Yeah, it definitely feels like a road movie. And the feel is honestly the most important factor to me.

(I am gonna try to get this done by tonight, I swear!)

It's definitely a matter of feel for me. A vague, amorphous definition of a vague, amorphous genre.

Goin' Down the Road comes and goes on YouTube. If you've got the capability of downloading it and watching it on a big screen, it's up there at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khvy2-Qxuzw

Errr... it looks like my top five might all be 'road movies on foot'. Is that okay?

Of course! Planes and boats would seem weird, but on foot works.

Finally took a couple of minutes to learn how to grab screenshots. This is the kind of thing I'll obsess over. Stroszek:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/screenshot_zpsswfc3e1x.jpg

Yeah, I've actually cut out Fitzcarraldo entirely in favour of other Herzog, and iirc I refrained from nominating Knife in the Water because "too boaty, not roady enough".

I always like to use song lyrics or quoted dialogue for poll titles, otherwise I'd go with "Too Boaty, Not Roady Enough."

Funny that there are three movies in release right now that qualify - Like Crazy, Folk Hero & Funny Guy, and Paris Can Wait.

I had planned to watch Je, tu, il, elle tonight, but turns out the YouTube I lifted is without subtitles. I take it there's not a whole lot of dialogue anyway, but I still need subtitles. Then I went to watch The American Friend--not nominated, but I came across a couple of great road images online--same thing. (And when I realized I had it on DVD anyway, I couldn't find it after a 20-minute search--maddening.) So I'm going with what I know.

Up to 13 ballots--would really appreciate seven more tomorrow. Coming up a bit short won't be all that bad--there are 40 films with at least three votes right now, and 25 with at least four--but I always think of 20 ballots as a reasonable floor for these polls.

(Looks like Like Crazy came out six years ago, unless it's a different one.)

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.")