The Best Road Trip Films
“A selection of on-screen journeys to help you travel vicariously this summer.”
Where to start when it comes to road trip films… with the scenic settings zooming by through a windowpane, the slew of feelings that accompany any journey, or the sometimes romanticized (but never quite glamorous) gas station stops? Or maybe, with the car itself? What if we start with why? Why do we like watching movies about people driving around? Well, it seems like there’s something to the idea of taking the proverbial ‘long route’ to get a spontaneous glimpse at things we’ve never encountered in the natural world (or at least there might have been before social media — though who's to say what ruinous impact postcards may have had).
The next best thing to travel itself may just be watching people travel, and thanks in no small part to American pop culture, the road trip movie has bound itself up in notions of mobility and freedom, excess and restraint, beauty and kitsch. Ok, but what about the stories themselves? Where are these people going? Like you and I, their journeys vary: some are long, others are short, some venture towards a destination, and others run away from a place (though, if we’re being philosophical, isn’t every ‘towards’ always also an ‘away’?). So perhaps, we venture to the screen to glance at something a little different than our own reality — and to see conflicts unfold not just over time, but space, too. We watch bodies moving in cars to see vehicles of our own desires and disasters in motion. And to have a little fun en route…
Thelma and Louise dir. Ridley Scott (1991)
Recommended by Rebecca Boorstin and Tonya Papanikolov
Starting with a bang, let’s talk about Ridley Scott’s 1991 classic, Thelma & Louise. Geena Davis is Thelma, and Susan Sarandon is Louise, in this flick that finds two energetic Arkansan women who seek a few days of innocuous fishing trip-fun on the run. In a charged moment, their little jaunt gets taken to thrilling new heights when they realize they’ve done something that requires evading and escaping the law. From then on, it’s delightful to watch them try in a film that’s truly one for the books.
Y Tu Mamá También dir. Alfonso Cuarón (2001)
Recommended by Natalie Guevara and Nicole Steriovski
“If there's a better road trip film than Y Tu Mamá También, please point me in that direction,” writes Natalie Guevara. The acclaimed Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón’s tale — that precedes his other home country-set coming of age story, Roma, by nearly two decades — is quick, snappy, and sexy in its chronicling of two teenage boys (played by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) leaving the city for the fertile beaches of Oaxaca with an older woman. The film’s script was written by Cuarón and his brother, Carlos, and is loosely inspired by the times they experienced growing up.
Easy Rider dir. Dennis Hopper (1969)
Recommended by Marina Sulmona and Claire Brodka
In what’s often regarded as the film that ignited the post-Code rise of independent American cinema, Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider, features the director in a starring role as Billy, alongside Peter Fonda’s Wyatt, and a then relatively unknown Jack Nicholson in a scene-stealing supporting role. The picture has all the tropes we’ve now come to understand as hallmarks of the genre: speedy vehicles (in this case, motorcycles), risky behavior (in this case, drug dealing and doing), scenic vistas of the Southwest, and a free wheelin’, easy-lovin’ lifestyle — and all the fear and hate that attracts from those counter to the counterculture.
Hit the Road dir. Panah Panahi (2022)
Recommended by Niki Kohandel
Panah Panahi's stunning debut follows an Iranian family of four (and their dog) as they traverse the rugged countryside of their homeland in a film that’s at once tender, cosmic, and comical. At first, a murkiness imbues what’s driving their voyage, but slowly, as literal and figurative headway is made, something more weighty emerges, culminating in something deeply profound.
Rain Man dir. Barry Levinson (1988)
Recommended by Anna Polonsky and Kerrilynn Pamer
Motives on the other side of sincere inspire Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) to set out on the road with a sibling he’s just discovered — mainly an inheritance that was left to said brother (Raymond, played by Dustin Hoffman), by their father. As many a mainstream ‘80s film goes, insincerity softens into something akin to real familial companionship and love as the two spend day and night with one another in a jointly beloved 1949 Buick Roadmaster.
The Sweetest Thing dir. Roger Kumble (2002)
Recommended by Chantilly Post
Roger Kumble’s very early aughts take on the genre stars the also very early aughts trio of Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate, and Selma Blair as best friends determined to chase after a man who has left town. The film is much raunchier and than you might expect — but likely not if it were men at center stage. Alone, each actress carries enough presence to jump off the screen, and together their charming irreverence is unstoppable.
Two Lane Blacktop dir. Monte Hellman (1971)
recommended by Laura Saglio
There’s a woman (Laurie Bird’s The Girl) stuck between two competing men (Dennis Wilson's The Mechanic, and James Taylor's The Driver), in Monte Hellman’s 1971 cult classic. Competition comes in the form of drag-racing too, but the film isn’t really about competition. It’s about feeling the feeling of being in a car with endless road in front of you — and the freedom and boredom that packs on. Like a good road trip itself, Two Lane Blacktop is about the ride.
Keep on riding with The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) dir. Walter Salles (recommended by Tonya Papanikolov), Stone, Time, Touch (2007) dir. Gariné Torossian (recommended by Niki Kohandel), Almost Famous (2000) dir. Cameron Crowe (recommended by Chantilly Post), The Vanishing (1993) dir. George Sluizer (recommended by Laura Saglio), (recommended by Niki Kohandel), Dumb and Dumber (1994) dir. Todd Rundgren (recommended by Chantilly Post), Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1974) dir. Chantal Akerman (recommended by Niki Kohandel), The Darjeeling Limited (2007) dir. Wes Anderson (recommended by Tonya Papanikolov), Ashik-Kerib (1988) dir. Sergeï Parajanov (recommended by Niki Kohandel), Nothing To Lose (1997) dir. by Steve Oedekerk (recommended by Chantilly Post), and Midnight in Paris (2011) dir. Woody Allen (recommended by Shino Takeda).
Words by Marina Sulmona