GASOLINE RAINBOW (2023) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross
Tony Aburto, Micah Bunch, Makai Garza,
Nichole Dukes, Nathaly Garcia
Five high-school friends, self-styled outcasts who have known each other forever, take off from far eastern Oregon in a beat-up van on a quest to reach the Pacific coast, 513 miles away. It's their last fling before the adult world crashes in on them, and they're not about to waste the chance. It's a bumpy ride and a ragged, scrappy movie, and it captures the strung-out, wild-assed energy you get - and the eclectic cross-section of people you meet - when you're winging it out on the road. Kevin Costner's "Fandango" did a similar thing with a bunch of college guys, and while these kids are less articulate, they're just as lost. The future's not something they're looking forward to (with good reason), but for the moment, or as long as the journey lasts, they're having the time of their lives. They're young, they're free, and they've got each other, and it'll never be this good again.
