Buckle Up and Enjoy These Road Trip Movies

With the release of 'Drive-Away Dolls' this weekend, we're hitting the road with our Friday recommendations

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Feb 23, 2024

This weekend sees the release of Ethan Coen’s (sans his brother Joel) road trip comedy Drive-Away Dolls. It has the look of a fun and ridiculous Coens adventure on the road, and that got us thinking about some of our favorite road trip movies. Our two Friday recommendations give you a heartfelt and enjoyable 70s classic and one of the funniest movies of the 90s.

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Drew recommends…

Paper Moon

In 1973’s Paper Moon, an impromptu road trip becomes an opportunity for a con man and a young orphan to form an unexpected bond. Set during the Great Depression, Moses (Ryan O’Neal) agrees to transport Addie (Tatum O’Neal) from Kansas to her aunt’s house in Missouri, because the neighbors suspect he’s her father, despite his denial of this. Throughout their journey along the dusty roads of poor rural Midwest, Moses and Addie discover they make a neat scam unit by selling Bibles to recent widows. Both strong-willed and shrewd, the two bicker, make money, and lose it again. It’s a road trip adventure with a sweet and unlikely father-daughter relationship at its heart.

Played by real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, the two performances were highly acclaimed for their authenticity back in 1973. At age 10, Tatum still holds the record for youngest Oscar winner ever when she took home the prize for Best Supporting Actress that year. Director Peter Bogdanovich films this period piece with both black-and-white nostalgia and a stark realism. The desperate Depression era is seen through the eyes of these immediately lovable characters. And because of this, Paper Moon is a delightful road trip tale that you’ll gladly take again.

Streaming on Max

Billy recommends…

Dumb and Dumber

I remember at the height of my film fandom I tried to explain a deeper meaning to Dumb and Dumber to my family. My Uncle Tom yelled, “DON’T MAKE ME HATE THIS MOVIE!” and I came to my senses. What a futile and insane reaction to one of the funniest movies of all time.

This movie starts as the perfect movie for 13-year-olds to see, but then as an adult on the 40th rewatch can begin to laugh at how they make Rhode Island look like such a shithole. But the reason we are talking about this movie is because it is a prime road trip movie. The two main characters drive for a living. Jim Carrey as Lloyd (it’s okay, he is a limo driver) and Jeff Daniels as Harry (Shaggin Waggin van driver) are drivers from the start.

It is only when Mary Swanson leaves a briefcase in an airport terminal when we see our Dumb and Dumber leads take out on the road. This is one of the few movies where I see all the bits coming and the pace of the story doesn’t suffer. Even movies like Anchorman suffer from too much familiarity. When you can see the beats, the laughs stop.

But lines like “I got robbed by a sweet old lady on a motorized cart, and I didn’t even see it comin” and “Idk Lloyd the French are assholes” are all too familiar and never lose their steam. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are at the peak of comedy acting. Not just in their era, but of all time. And the Farrelly brothers, the directors, do just enough to make the simplicity of what we are watching interesting to look at. This is a perfect road trip movie.

Available to rent digitally on demand