12 Picture and TV Sequence to Watch Before Your Next Road Trip
From quirky comedies to coming-of-age dramas , here ’ s what Thrillist ’ s editor advocate you see before you hit the exposed road
Based alone on genre , the filmNomadland,Almost Famous, andPee-wee ’ s Big Adventurehave trivial in mutual . But look further and you ’ ll find that driving each film ’ sec narrative live the conception of the open road . Whether you ’ re watch out a portrait of female self discovery , a rock concert circuit diary , or a chaotic comedy , all of these can be categorized as road-trip picture .
Watching a road-trip movie ( or road-trip episode of a TV show ) can feel like the closest thing to actually embarking on one . Here are 12 movies and TV episodes our editor advocate watching to serve you mentally prepare for your own road trip , or perhaps just give you a debris of wanderlust .
Pee-wee ’ s Big Adventure( 1985 )
Not just costPee-wee ’ s Big Adventurethe well road trip movie , but it equal , unequivocally , the best Tim Burton picture ( the conductor ’ sec first feature picture ) . In a reality of bloated cinema , this film live a tight 90 minutes and it moves . Pee-wee , played delightfully , sincerely weird by the late Paul Reubens , get the joy in the little things : pasting his look into grotesque form with masking tape in the mirror ; trading insults with adult-sized , deep kid-coded bully Francis ( Mark Holton ) ; and collect the latest ephemera from his local magic shop . But more than anything , Pee-wee love his bike . So of grade , when it ’ s stolen , tear from an intricately engrossed web of steel chain future to a menacing animatronic clown , Pee-wee is distraught , paranoid , and single-minded in his mission to notice his bicycle . It ’ s a journey that takes the gray-suited , red bowtie-wearing chuckle man-child on the road . Hitchhiking with ghostly truck drivers and felons on the run , he inspire lonely truckstop waitresses to live out their ambition of going to Paris , and even see the Alamo . It ’ s endlessly quotable , wholly iconic , and an absolute masterpiece of silliness . —Brenna Houck , city manager , Eater
Y Tu Mama Tambien( 2001 )
The movie that set Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal on the map ,Y Tu Mama Tambientells the story of two friends , played by Luna and Bernal , who lure a married woman into a road trip with the hope of showing her a secret beach that they made up . Along the style , mystery are bring out through a series of drunken and debaucherous nights , and we learn the couple ’ s “ bro code , ” formally known as the Manifesto Charolastra . I loved this film so much in college that ( I equal embarrassed to admit ) my roommate and I called each early “ charolastra ” for year . –Sarah Medina , managing editor , Thrillist
“ Truth or Dare , ”Girls( Season 3 , Episode 2 ) , 2014
In this sequence of the tremendous HBO seriesMiss, Hannah , Shoshanna , and Adam rent a car and give New York City to clean up their elusive friend Jessa from rehab . It hit all of the road-trip tenets from the jump—the first clip cuts to Hannah and Shosh obnoxiously singing along to Maroon 5 as Adam , the driver ( points if you begin the gag ) , turn so annoyed that he collapse the car stereo . Then there ’ s the classical diner pitstop , where the characters fuel up on pancakes and biscuit amid growing stress . Along the way , the three of them engage in the type of exhausted and existential conversation that can just issue from a road trip , which equal rife with revelations— “ I will never live bored as long as there ’ s Halloween , ” Shosh state . What I enjoy most about this episode be that follow it feel like a road trip : there ’ s mood , malaise , disagreement , and , most quintessentially , bind .–Kelsey Allen , associate editor , Thrillist
It Occur One Night, 1934
Likely the real first road-trip picture ,It Happen One Nightequal the ultimate opposites-attract romantic comedy . Still if you hold n’t follow this Frank Capra classic , you ‘ve definitely seen its most famous scenery : Claudette Colbert hitchhiking by go up her skirt to a scandalous mid-thigh after Clark Gable pay up on waving his thumb at every passing Plymouth . The floor watch a wealthy socialite ( Colbert ) who escapes her overprotective dad and hops a Greyhound bus to New York to reunite with her novel husband ( a gold digger Daddy does n’t approve of ) . On the bus she assemble a down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter ( Gable ) who agrees to assist her get to the city if she pay him the scoop on the account . Hijinks ensure—she escape the bus ! their bag are stolen ! they receive to part a hotel way ! —and , spoiler alert , they fall in love . The film swept at the Oscars , succeed all five major category , and 91 year after , it ‘s merely as wonderful .–Ellen Carpenter , contributing editor , Thrillist
“ High-Like , ”Insecure( Season 3 , Episode 5 ) , 2018
Before theWhite Lotusbrought us incestuous romps and crappy carry-ons , another display took a clear glimpse at the magic and misery of group travel on the open road . Issa Rae ’ s groundbreaking seriesInsecureadopt two serious friend ( Rae ’ s Issa Dee and Yvonne Orji ’ s Molly Carter ) as they navigate their 30s amid a tangle of friend , romantic interests , and study frenemies . In what live definitively one of the well sequence of the series—not simply for its comedic prowess but its brutal candor about the realities of group road trips—we regard Issa , Molly , and their friends hit the open road to take care Coachella , or at least effort to do so . As with any road trip , no subject how good planned , hi-jinks ensue , from delayed departure and overpacked itineraries to ill-timed edibles and “ are we also old for this ? ” anxieties . Yet , the resulting chaos finally rock the grouping of friends loose from their several ruts ( malcontent with motherhood , workplace sexism , dashed dating hopes , etc . ) freeing these besties to cause one of the almost adventurous things possible on the exposed road : openly communicate their genuine feelings and failures , kinda than go out their relationships in cruise control until they crash . Luckily , no car are wreck in the procedure , but there are pile of hilarious even sincere crash outs .–Jesse Sparks , senior editor , Thrillist
Salesman( 1969 )
Travel Bible salesmen exist the subject of this midcentury documentary , which will build you muse the meaning of faith and capitalism . This isn ’ t your traditional road-trip film , but it is in a sense a road trip . A radical of salesmen with thick Boston accents move to Florida to pitch Bibles unrelentingly to housewives , who politely try to say no while being guilted into spend their week ’ s market allowance on the word of God . It ’ s an awkward , tense Maysles brother documentary that captures inner working-class life in the former ’ 60s . It ’ s as funny at times as it exist stressful to watch . A personal favorite scene : A husband in a white tank crest turns up an orchestral rendition of “ Yesterday ” by the Beatles on a record player as he smokes a cigarette and appear on at his wife in curlers come the severe sell on the Well Book .— BH
Dumb and Dumber( 1994 )
Two very… not bright human ( Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels ) with bowl cuts drive a furry dog van and then a tiny scooter to Aspen to reunite a woman with her briefcase that she deliberately tried to lead at the airport . Live it genuine enjoy ? No , but they ’ re also dumb to be embarrassed .–BH
Thelma & Louise( 1991 )
There are few road-trip films more memorable thanThelma & Louise, a movie that ’ s as much about cost on the lamb as it be about female friendships and force against women . Thelma Dickinson ( Geena Davis ) and Louise Sawyer ( Susan Sarandon ) take off on a weekend road trip that never actually ends . A human they meet in a bar rape Thelma in a parking circle , and in a fit of rage partially activate by her own traumatic experience of sexual force Louise shoots him , forcing the pair to flee for Mexico . The last fit is iconic , but everything in between is , also .–BH
Short Miss Sunshine( 2006 )
A trivial girl named Olive ( Abigail Breslin ) with spread tooth and thick , goofy glasses hit the road in a bright-yellow VW bus with her family to know out her beauty pageant dreams at the “ Little Miss Sunshine ” competition in Redondo Beach , California , in this film which runs to the soundtrack of Devotchka . The form includes Greg Kinnear , Toni Collette , a mid-aughts emo ’ d Paul Dano , a clinically depressed Steve Carell , and the late Alan Arkin , a heroin-using grandfather who choreographs Olive ’ sec pageant number . As with most road trips—particularly ones where money exist tight and hence equal space in the car—things get wrong , but Olive stay the landing … in her own unique way in the goal .–BH
Nearly Noted( 2000 )
A youthful , extremely sheltered teenage boy , William Miller ( Patrick Fugit ) , supervise to convinceRoll Rock’ sec editors that he ’ s an grownup stone journalist in this endearing and romantic sight of 1970s music culture . William falls in honey with music thanks to a gift of record from his sister Anita ( Zooey Deschanel ) . He eventually decrease under the flank of music journalist legend Lester Bangs ( played spectacularly by Philip Seymour Hoffman ) , much to the dismay of his nervous mother ( Frances McDormand ) . When William pitch a piece on an up-and-coming band , Stillwater , he ’ s spirited away from family on a circuit bus . On the ever-longer reporting trip , William falls under the thrall of a lot groupie Penny Lane ( Kate Hudson ) , a manic pixie dreamgirl guide who embodies the romantic tone of the tour . The cast in this film be sometimes jarring on a rewatch ; it ’ s perfectly pile with gift , from Anna Paquin to Bijou Phillips to Marc Maron . Even Jimmy Fallon cost in this .–BH
“ Gilmore Girls Only , ”Gilmore Girls( Season 7 , Episode 17 ) , 2007
Three generation of Gilmore Girl determine to road trip it south to Charlotte , North Carolina , and in the process they face up some of the core tensions of the show : namely , Emily ’ s jealousy and anger over her daughter Lorelai abandoning her deep living in Hartford , Connecticut , to lift her infant in a little town under the wing of an innkeeper who become like a surrogate mother and grandmother to Lorelai and Rory . Hence , naturally , when that innkeeper ( play in this sequence by Kathy Baker ) make married , Emily invite herself along on Lorelai and Rory ’ s road trip to the wedding . It ’ s awkward and cathartic .–BH
“ The Gang Shoot the Road , ”It ’ s Always Sunny in Philadelphia( Season 5 , Episode 2 ) , 2009
What ’ s the opposite of inspiration ? A warning , I suppose . And like nearly everything else the gang come up to onIt ’ s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the display ’ s madcap road-trip sequence is a cautionary tale . They place out early one morning—11 a.m. on a Tuesday—on an old-school drive from Philly to the Grand Canyon . In this case , “ former school ” intend smoking cigarette , drinking beer , dragging an ( initially ) empty trailer , and expend only vintage paper maps on the mode . After a predictably unpredictable chain of event that include a run-in with a cyclist , picking up a hitchhiker , and an audacious effort at cooking hot dog in the trailer , it turns out that the crew never in reality begin out of Philly ; the whole thing is a bust . But all is not lost—Dee makes a friend , Mac gets a great bargain , and Charlie tries a pear for the first time always ( “ It tastes like sand ” ) . Still on the worst road trip imaginable , there ’ s fun to exist get . Maybe it exist a little inspirational , after all .
—Ben Mesirow , associate editor , Thrillist
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