A Long Road

Back in 1996, my friend Michael Shoob, who is a terrific writer-director, made a well-regarded independent movie, Driven, about cab drivers.  Only a mere 30 years later, he made a sequel, Road to Everywhere, starring and featuring many actors from the original film. 

First things first, it’s just such an amazing achievement that he – that anyone – would be able to pull this off.  And not only did he get the movie made, but he’s gotten it into 15 theaters.  And in major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Atlanta, Portland…okay, you get the idea.

And second, beyond just “pulling it off,” he made a really wonderful movie. 

I went to see it on Wednesday in the theater, and thought it was a terrific work of high quality.  Wonderfully written – smart, thoughtful, substantive, good twists and even some humor.  And his direction was excellent, getting very strong performances from his two leads, along with good performances from the secondary characters, which isn’t always the case in indie films -- and with moody cinematography in the nighttime streets of Los Angeles and, most notably, across the desert Southwest that was extremely effective. 

The movie describes itself as a “coming of age story for grownups.”  It tells the story of a Los Angeles cab driver, dealing with long-held demons, still driving a cab after three decades, who is “offered the trip of a lifetime by a local casino dealer and gambler who wants to return to the Navajo Reservation to the home he abandoned 30 years ago to see his grandson compete in a Native American rodeo.”

It’s not necessary to have seen the original film in order to follow the sequel.  Though Road to Everywhere carries part of one of the plots from Driven, this tells its own standalone story, which is perfectly clear.  And any overlaps with the original are handled well with flashbacks and seamless “catch up” dialogue. 

The movie stars Whip Hubley, who was one of the cabbie stars of Driven (and was in Top Gun and starred in the TV remake of the series Flipper) and singer-actor Robert Mirabal, new to the story, playing an uncommon character trying to get to the Navajo Reservation, and they handle the many edges of their relationship – distrust, understanding, sardonic humor, lifetimes of experience, self-anger, companionship and more – with great skill.  Several other actors from the original film make appearances, as well, most notably Diane DiLascio as the cabbie’s ex-wife, and, in a small, but wonderful scene, Daniel Roebuck, the best-known of these cameos. 

It's not that Michael is that slow a writer, or procrastinates for 30 years.  He had other things to work on in the interim.  But eventually he and producer Joseph Mealey came up with a good story, from which Michael wrote the screenplay and then directed.  Among Michael's other work, he most notably made a great documentary, Bush’s Brain, based on the book about George W. Bush’s mentor, Karl Rove.  I suspect they’re trying to expand the theaters for Road to Everywhere to other cities, but I also suspect the movie will show up streaming at some point. 

Obviously, I’m very biased because Michael is a friend.  And I’m thrilled for him making this sequel after 30 years for that reason.  But I’m absolutely impartial and honest in how good it is.  It does me no good to praise a film so highly that doesn’t live up to that standard, since that mucks up my credibility.  I thought the movie was terrific.  It only has one critic’s review so far on the Rotten Tomatoes website, from the NYC Movie Guru. That, therefore, does not offer any substant evidence to support me.  Nonetheless, what that critic says is – “A profound, honest, engrossing and beautifully shot emotional journey well worth taking.” 

Here’s the trailer.  It’s a rarity – it does a very good job capturing the movie.  But there’s still a lot more to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL1q99yfZYY