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The Pick: Lost In America (1985)
The Team
Ed Travis
It is my shame that has led us here.
Albert Brooks is simply one of my great cinematic blind spots, and it was my idea to take a look at some of his films so I could scratch a few of them from my list of shame and hopefully bring a few friends, fans, and fellow cinephiles along with me. I mean sure, I’ve seen the Nemo movies, and of course I’ve seen Drive, which we’ll be covering later in this series. But those are the films that utilized Brooks because he was ALREADY a legend. So I’m excited to dive into some of his earlier work that is very highly regarded.
Co-written, directed by, and starring Brooks, Lost In America is at one level a breezy and funny comedy about a couple who leave it all behind and hit the road on a wing and a prayer. And on that level it’s pretty funny, zips by at roughly 90 minutes, and more or less entertains front to back. But man, are Brooks’ character David Howard’s neuroses on full display here. A sort of an “ugly American” type of story, David and Linda (the great Julie Hagerty that I mostly only know from Airplane) aren’t the most likeable or sympathetic protagonists in the world. Sure, they’re fulfilling a fantasy that countless others have had, perhaps also inspired by Easy Rider, as David is. But David is selfish and impulsive, and rather than face the consequences of a well deserved firing, they hit the road wildly unequipped for the journey ahead. So Lost In America does seem to have a bit of a desire to lampoon this type of American who thinks they can perhaps escape the consequences of their actions by simply running away into “freedom”.
Diving into the ending, though, after failing decisively at living off of their nest egg for even a single night, the film says a lot with the conclusion, in which David “eats shit” and runs back to the corporate job he had brazenly rejected before, and all lived happily ever after. Lost In America speaks to the longing everyone has to be free, the delusion many have that they can make it on their own, system be damned, and the ridiculous white, straight, male privilege that is afforded so that our leads can be accepted back into the fold, albeit with their tails between their legs.
Frank Calvillo
[Culled from Frank’s full Criterion review of Lost In America.]
Lost in America is classic Brooks in every way possible, from the character he’s given himself to play, to the endearing heroine, to the witty script (“What do you think,” Linda asks David upon entering their gaudy hotel room. “I think if Liberace had children, this would be their room,” he replies.) As a road movie, Lost in America is less about the sort of quick, gag-filled moments that are usually found in the genre, but rather about the situations which develop organically, snowball, and become incredibly involving as a result.
It is easy to spot and understand what David and Linda are running away from by quitting their jobs and heading out for a life on the road. Their actions speak to an incredibly real fear of becoming full-fledged members of the yuppie culture, consumed by materialism in every way, shape and form while remaining slaves to their slow-moving careers. The possibility of both David and Linda, former members of the hippie culture, wanting to return to an existence built on the more naturalistic side of life is easy to imagine given the epiphany both go through. But there’s a real fear about the decade that moves the couple; a fear of climbing up the social and corporate ladder and being dehumanized by it. One of the ultimate themes of Lost in America remains the idea of finally having everything you’ve ever strived for and then asking: Who am I now?
What David and Linda hope to find through this radical change is a re-connection with the people they once were before the stylish trappings of the decade took hold of them. The desirable 80s lifestyle that the decade ushered it has gotten to them so much, that the couple begins to feel that they literally can’t become the people they’re trying to be without being swallowed up by the times. Despite the best of intentions, it’s heartbreaking and funny to watch fate rear its ugly head at David and Linda. Key moments, including Linda blowing their life savings at a Las Vegas casino to the two eventually taking the most menial of jobs, and pretending they’re happier as a result, shows how futile their efforts of escape are. Ultimately however, David and Linda’s 80s existence is so much a part of them now, regardless of who they might have been once that it flat out prevents them from being able to make it on their own, inevitably pulling the two back in.
Eddie Strait
The thing that immediately stands out about Lost in America is that David (Albert Brooks) and Linda (Julie Hagerty) are lost long before Linda gambles away their nest egg. They lead lives with no fulfillment, no satisfaction. Linda’s worked in a windowless office for years, and David’s so settled in his ad exec life and so used to getting his way that the first time (in a loooong time) something doesn’t go his way, his first inclination is to run away and she’s all too ready to go along with his absurd plan.
David is the kind of guy that I simultaneously fear and feel bad for: he has a good job, a loving wife, a very comfortable life and it’s not enough for him. He values money and status more than anything and that’s how he defines himself. Even when he loses those things, he doesn’t lose the sense of entitlement that came with his previous life. That drives a lot of the film’s humor, and Brooks gets a lot of mileage out of making David the unwitting butt of so many of the film’s jokes. The ultimate joke of the movie is that David’s initial plan to get lost is built on a failsafe. When all the chips are really down and he and Julie are forced to find new jobs (with her immediately finding a better job than him), their first reaction is to abandon that and go get their old life back.
I’m writing this moments after finishing the film, a first-time watch for me, and I feel like my thoughts are swirling. The movie is a really, really funny, but the bits that are rising to the top as I work through my thoughts are the most acidic parts of Brooks’ commentary. Great movie, a particularly great performance by Hagerty, and a damning portrait of entitlement.
ALBERT BROOKS 101
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