Interstate 60 is the best quirky, philosophical road movie you've never heard of. It beats me how a script this tantalizingly good, with a cast so prolific, went so far under everyone's radar. It's made with a karmic, phantom tollbooth-esque sensibility, like if Alice In Wonderland and The Big Empty had a baby, and it was made by the same guys who did Back To The Future. The script is simply a wonder to behold, and I was amazed to find it wasn't based on some best selling book by Richard Linklater or someone. James Marsden plays a guy on the seemingly perfect track. With career lined, a nice girl and everything. Until fate deals him a mysterious hand, and he's prompted to take a trip down 'Interstate 60', a road which doesn't appear on any maps, and seems to not exist at all. He's puzzled to find himself on it anyway though, in a trippy dream of a voyage which puts him face to face with all sorts of outlandish characters, including genie like gentleman O.W. Grant (Gary Oldman having oodles of fun), a serial killer, a police captain of a town addicted to a really strange drug (Kurt Russell), a clairvoyant doctor (Christopher Lloyd), and eventually the elusive girl of his dreams (Amy Smart, unbelievably cute). The trip is meant to teach him something about himself, and through journeying a road that isn't really there, find one that right for him, and will give him the benefits of life in their fullest. For all the colourful, kooky trappings the film is dressed in, and even though the intelligent banter is delivered light heartedly, its actually serious minded stuff that begs attentiveness and contemplation from its audience. There's a surreality to it of course, a certain detachment, but the exchanges of characters couldn't be more grounded in our reality, and more human. There's a cameo from Michael J. Fox, and career best from Chris Cooper as well in a one of the many spot on sequences that show off the film's writing. This ones the definition of a hidden gem, just this side of normal, with a delicious cast that delves into the various concepts they chat about with willing interest, comic deft and an infectiously fun sense of the absurd.
Review of Interstate 60
