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THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE LONG ROAD
Director: Ani Simon-Kennedy Cast: Sabrina Carpenter, Steven Ogg, Danny Trejo, Maggie Siff, Rusty Schwimmer, Jashaun St. John MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:30 Release Date: 6/12/20 (limited); 6/16/20 (digital & on-demand) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 15, 2020 "I think you have your biological family," someone says near the end of The Short History of the Long Road, "but sometimes, you have your logical family, too." That's a familiar sentiment, but the wording of it in Ani Simon-Kennedy's film makes the statement just as a clever as it is lovely. The film itself has a similar vibe. We can more or less expect everything that happens, but the film catches us just off-guard enough with how the story unfolds and the sincerity behind the telling. The protagonist is teenaged Nola (Sabrina Carpenter). She and her father Clint (Steven Ogg) have been living out of a vintage van, traveling the United States, for most, if not all, of Nola's life. The girl is at a point in her life, though, at which she's looking for more, such as friends or just watching a movie all the way to the end (Clint is always in a hurry to keep moving). Nola also has questions about her mother, who left shortly after the girl was born. Suddenly, without warning, Clint is out of Nola's life, too. She sets out on her own journey, hoping to find her mother and possibly start living a "normal" life. The plot is as simple and uncomplicated as that, because this is a film about a character and her relationships with the world and the assorted strangers she meets along the way. Central to the story is the notion of freedom, especially set against the need for some kind of stability. On her own, there is perhaps too much freedom. Under the roof of a good-hearted but strict woman (played Rusty Schwimmer), there's not enough of it. When the van breaks down, an auto mechanic named Miguel (Danny Trejo) arrives at a decent compromise, but the lure of the past is too strong. The climax of Nola's story has the character re-connecting with her mother Cheryl (Maggie Siff), whose own need for freedom conflicts with her daughter's desire for stability. Simon-Kennedy presents the dynamics of that relationship with equal but heartbreaking understanding. The Short History of the Long Road really provides a sense of this character arriving at her own sense of understanding—reconciling the past with her future, her yearning for freedom and the need for connection, and the call of the open road and something to claim as home. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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