Lost in America, written by Albert Brooks and Monica Johnson, directed and starring the former - 9.4 out of 10

Lost in America, written by Albert Brooks and Monica Johnson, directed and starring the former 
9.4 out of 10


Albert Brooks is an incredible actor, director and writer, who seems to have the 'reality distortion field' that Steve Jobs was famous for, among other things.

The writer, director and star of Lost in America is so charismatic, enjoy entertaining, pleasant, possessing an enviable bonhomie and a halo, that he almost doesn't need to engage in very clever, mirthful dialogue.
Quite often, if not always, his presence, mimics, changes on his face express enough to go along and enjoy the comedy.
He plays David Howard, an advertising executive, married to Linda aka talented Julie Hagerty.

They face an adversity, when David is unexpectedly up against his boss at the agency, where he was expecting to be promoted,  confirmed as executive Vice President, only to find that another man, with much less experience, two against his eight years with the company, is getting the position.
It is an acrimonious, but also amusing dispute, wherein the boss is happy they have a new massive account, Ford no less, and wants David to move to New York and work for another  boss.

The hero is so frustrated, annoyed by this prospect and convinced he is getting to be VP that he thinks this is a joke, a prank and someone will just pop up and they will all laugh together.
Only this is no joke!

Therefore, the tension increases, David would not move to New York, where he says they steal all you have as soon as you set your foot there - looking at Trump, I would say he has a good point.
He is fired, insults are traded and he is escorted by a security guard out of the building.

An epiphany is next!
David goes to the office of his wife and says they must drop out and take the example of the Easy Rider characters.
He wants to have sex with his wife, here and now, at her work place...

He calculates that they have a good nest egg, we would later learn that as a creative director he made about 100 k per year, which could be well above 500k today,maybe more than one million dollars.
They could thus buy a Winnebago, become Lost in America.

They would still have in excess of 150k and hence enough to retire or drop off on.
Alas, they stop in Las Vegas and almost everything goes wrong.

The nest egg is gone anyway.
For while David is asleep, Linda walks into the Casino, gambles and loses everything except for eight hundred dollars.

In the fight that ensues, she speaks of the Easy Rider protagonists as examples and they had nothing.
Her spouse is right in pointing out that in fact they had so much stashed away, the money in the gas tank of one of their bikes.

The same Easy Rider movie is again part of the dialogue as they are stopped and about to be fined by a police officer in Arizona, but he forgets that as they discover that they share a passion for this same movie.

There are plenty of excellent moments in the film, such as the sometimes hilarious talk between ad executive and casino manager, or the former and a clerk in a small town employment office.

The clerk is flabbergasted by the exorbitant salary that David used to have and he keeps laughing and repeating the sum obsessively.