“As I say, messing with people’s heads can be a lot of fun. You should try it.”

Justin’s rating: Ask again later

Justin’s review: People don’t tend to know the names of a lot of film screenwriters, but chances are that the name “Bob Gale” is one of the more recognized. The co-writer (and co-producers) of the Back to the Future films, Gale has a beloved spot in many a geek’s heart, mine included, for the creation of one of the best trilogies ever made.

Yet for all his name recognition, I doubt that pretty much anyone knows that Gale directed his own quirky road trip flick (and even roped in Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd for cameos). Interstate 60 stars James Marsden as Neal Oliver, an indecisive guy who takes a trip down an interstate that doesn’t actually exist in search of his life’s purpose and a mystery girl he’s been dreaming about.

Along the way, he bumps into a strange figure called OW Grant (Gary Oldman) — an impish mythological character with a red bow tie, monkey pipe, and the ability to grant people one important wish. Neal wishes to find his purpose on his 22nd birthday in Grant’s hearing, and that sets off a chain of events that may allow him to do just that.

After getting hit on the noggin by a falling pail, Neal encounters another puzzling man (Lloyd) who seemingly knows everything and challenges Neal to start seeing what everyone else doesn’t. Sure enough, Neal begins to notice signs, messages, and seeming portents directing him to take a job down Interstate 60, which isn’t on any map, and deliver a package in “Danver” Colorado. He can’t open the package, can’t ask for directions (because there aren’t any), and has to stay alert for a potential killer.

This is a road trip, yes, but it’s also a journey of fantasy as Neal starts to encounter people and places that most folk simply ignore. Think of this as a folk tale where the supernatural bubbles up through the cracks of our normalcy, and you’ll start to get into the spirit of the film. The most peculiar things keep happening, but hey, what did you expect on a road that isn’t really there?

Marsden and Oldman have really great chemistry as road trip buddies. I like that Grant doesn’t hide who he is; he’s up front with Neal, having taken a liking to the younger man, and lets him look behind the curtain of reality for a little while. Some other notable faces, including Chris Cooper and Kurt Russell, pop up as well.

The subtitle of this film is Episodes from the Road, and that’s what we get. There’s a guy who eats an insane amount of food at the diner, a flirtatious hitchhiker (played by the Pink Power Ranger herself), a drug-enslaved town, the Museum of Art Fraud, and so on. One cool thing to pick up on is that these characters represent the seven deadly sins (gluttony, lust, sloth, etc.). That’s not shoved in our face, but it does add another layer to the surrealism.

I also love an upbeat and creative road trip flick that’s used as a framework for a bunch of little stories. Interstate 60 tells you up front that it isn’t taking this too seriously with the whimsy of OW Grant’s character and the impossible coincidences that spring up around Neal. That may disqualify this from being a serious drama, but it does a lot to make it a truly enjoyable journey. I genuinely wanted to see where Neal would go next, how he would grow from these encounters — and what lay at the end of his trip when he got there.

This is an amazing little film that may be seen as a spiritual companion piece to Back to the Future — an incredible journey with a character who’s just coming of age and looking for his full purpose in life. Don’t miss it, or else you’ll be driving on the boring old roads as everyone else.

Eunice’s rating: When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Eunice’s review: You know, I really thought Interstate 60 had already been reviewed. Then while putting together some retro reviews I realized I was wrong. It is now time to rectify the situation!

Neal has just turned 22 and needs to figure out the rest of his life. He’s an artist at heart, but his father is pressuring him to go to law school. He has a psychoanalyzing girlfriend, but knows that his true love is the, literal, girl of his dreams. Having gotten his final rejection for an art scholarship, he’s on the brink of excepting the fate everyone else has laid out for him and his dreams dying out.

Then after a series of “coincidences” introduces him to a couple of strange characters, he’s offered a job: Take a mysterious package, that he’s not allowed to lose, open, or figure out what’s inside, to a mysterious recipient by taking a road that doesn’t exist – Interstate 60. He’s encouraged to take his time on the way and create some “stories of the road,” but is warned that there is a killer out there. He ends up signing a contract. In blood.

Interstate 60 is an odd little movie. For me, and it may not be the same for everyone, it’s like if you took Neal Gaiman’s American Gods, mixed it with John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, sprinkled it with some Twilight Zone, and turned it into an upbeat movie, this is what you’d get.

It opens with someone saying that America has no mythology. The argument is made that it isn’t that we don’t have a mythology, but we’re so young we can’t see that we do. Every superstition, old wives tale, piece of folk lore, urban legend is our mythology. Also, according to the movie, we’re conditioned as we get older to not see.

Neal still has the ability to “see” which is why he is chosen to deliver the spooky Mr. Ray’s package. On the way he picks up a hitchhiker, O.W. Grant. The O.W. stands for One Wish. He’s a half leprechaun, half Cheyenne immortal who has the ability to grant a person one wish. Only, like most wish granters, his wishes tend to come back on the wishers. See, most people make wishes grounded in frivolous or negative things. He’s a “joker in Life’s deck.”

Well, Neal’s birthday wish is an Answer. An Answer to his life to be exact. O.W. happens to like Neal’s wish and takes a shine to him. He gives him an omniscient Magic 8 Ball and the advice that “there are no coincidences” and “every event is inevitable.” He’s directed through his trip by signs with his dream girl, signs that no one else but fellow romantics and dreamers can see.

And he needs that direction. Along the way he meets, is tempted by, and made wiser by the people and towns he comes across. They’re all looking for something, the truth, euphoria, the perfect [sexual encounter], it’s why Interstate 60 exists. But like O.W.’s wishes their intent determines their outcome. Sometimes Neal missteps, but deep down he’s an honest and hopeful guy.

Neal’s trip is kinda of a road trip through the Deadly Sins with satire. Instead of getting preachy, I-60 tempers its fantastical morality tale with humor. And lots of cursing. This movie is terribly clever and jam packed with an amazing cast and everyone is top notch. Nobody is in it for very long, but they all make the most of the screen time they’re given. Gary Oldman, Kurt Russell, Ann-Margret, and Chris Cooper are decidedly my favorites.

While you can watch it on your own just fine, if you have a group of friends who like to pick apart movies, this is a good one to see what everyone gets out of it and what they think it means.

And if you don’t want to get all deep and heavy in your movie thinking, then approach it as a movie that opens with Michael J. Fox swearing a blue streak and has a romantic fart joke.

Intermission!

• Road Scholar Tavern
• OW Grant — one wish per customer, red bow tie, leprechaun father, smokes a pipe carved in the image of a monkey
• Michael J Fox is freaking out and wastes his wish — and he’s in the same movie as Christopher Lloyd, directed by Bob Gale. Crazy!
• I miss those cool old iMacs!
• The X-Men comic book, a nice nod to Marsden’s role as Cyclops
• This movie has a strange fixation on cell phones
• Black hearts and red spades
• “If life offers you an advantage, take it.”
• “There is another choice, coming soon”
• “Consider it an interesting way to break in the new century.”
• “I’m the DEVIL… just kidding.”
• Remember Magic 8-Balls? This movie certainly does!
• “Come on, let’s find that road.”
• 15 double cheeseburgers is a good amount
• “The world’s a different place when you’re not constantly thinking about sex.”
• 2,461 doesn’t sound like safe sex
• The Museum of Art Fraud
• Kurt Russell and Kurt Russell’s ponytail
• Literal ambulance chasers
• That’s a pretty gnarly corpse