This movie was made fifty years too late it seems. Hollywood is usually fifty years behind, though. It's actually based on an article from Harper's fifty years ago. As for the movie, this should have been one of I liked very much, but it had too much DIY (Do-It-Yourself). You'd think the audience for this movie has never left their house to know how to live "on the road". I've had experiences like this, but by backpack, and all over the world, hostel-hopping, farming, sleeping in a park for a week with friends, and it's tough, but also fun, just depending on how you feel at the moment. I never knew or cared about "Bo" - we don't see him in the movie, and it seemed like a way to bring in sentimentality/sadness to a situation that didn't need it, and was probably interrupted. I would have liked to have seen more conversations from Blinkie, Linda, and Bob, who must be non-actors, because they were not only natural, but they reminded me of people I know. I'd think "Cool", and then the 60-second conversation was over. I never liked Jason Statham - he seems to always play a creepy-kinda guy who just has an unlikable face... I would have lied to know more about the main character, and would have probably been better not to re-do the Amazon job scenes, etc... It might have been a good to see the not-so-community oriented "tent cities" all over the country, too. Pretty soon, we'll ALL be working for Amazon in some way, and we ARE the product. Social media isn't free, but some of the nomads found it useful and if that's where the people are at, you don't have much of a choice.
Frances is good as usual, but the movie seemed to take 30 minutes of good movie and make it almost 100 movies. However, I guess I'm glad this won Best Picture, because people should know about struggle, which I'm sure they do, but that it's probably more common than just the undesirables. I liked that Statham's and Frances' character didn't "bang", because it seemed like the way it would have gone. It might have been cool and been expressive if the young man and her had a one-night stand to show a more instinctual nature, and the depravities of the road, and if two people can do something so they can both have one of those free pleasures in life, why not, but I praise on not including any, too. It was good the sister wasn't cliche, supported her, and mentioned how she was emblematic of the pioneers, those who sought a new frontier, when man meets a new idea which is probably impossible staying in one place, which is something I seem to prefer now, but there's too many reasons and not enough space to type this all out.
I give it an extra point for being a movie I actually I didn't turn off like the last handful of movies from my beloved 1930-70s preference, or ever thought about turning it off. I'd say this is a pretty accessible movie; a majority would probably like this, I don't see too many extremes, where people say it's their favorite or the worst movie they saw, but I do like looking at the extremes on the user reviews on IMDB... I also liked it a little more after lighting up a pinner, because the movie is reflective and moderately paced, maybe too slow for a casual viewer.
I must say, if THIS is the best movie, I'm definitely not watching the others. I guess I'm glad it won, because for me, the movies made in my lifetime aren't unique, lots of bad writing, too much thought into commercialism... I've seen many movies like this, but if you DO like this, check out "Harry and Tonto", "The Straight Story", or take a trip yourself... "Paris, Texas" is another good movie.
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