Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
andrewd1771
This was a movie about America written by someone who had never been out of Manhattan and who was just going off of 1] what some other toffs put in their screenplays, 2] general contempt for an unfamiliar culture, 3] a supercilious mindset, and 4] the effect of marijuana on the brain.There is really nothing additional required to review this insipid bit of celluloid, but IMDb does not value concision or the power of words and so requires 10 lines of text for a review. This was undoubtedly Albert Brooks's idea. Had he valued other people's time, he would not have inflicted this time-waster of a film on the world.
HelloTexas11
'Lost in America' is a largely overlooked comedic gem of a movie, directed by and starring the intermittently brilliant comedian Albert Brooks. It's probably his best film, the most successful in terms of sustained humor. Others, like 'Defending Your Life' and 'The Muse' fall flat for long stretches and Brooks' neurotic persona starts to grate. But when he's good, he's very good, and there are some gaspingly hilarious moments in 'Lost in America.' I wouldn't mind being Albert Brooks. Without ever having a huge commercial success, he has been able to produce films regularly (while appearing in others) for the last thirty years. He's sort of a poor man's Woody Allen, but frankly I prefer Brooks and find his comic style much more palatable. 'Lost in America' finds David Howard (Brooks) expecting a big promotion at the ad agency where he works. More than expecting it, he is banking on it. He and his wife Linda (Julie Hagerty) have sold their house and bought a new one, so certain are they of this impending move up and increase in salary. David's friends and co-workers have all told him he's a shoo-in for the job. Yet worry nags at him. He's like a little kid who has convinced himself he's going to get a pony for Christmas but deep down knows there's no way. The big day arrives and when the dust has settled, David's worst fears have come true. In fact, worse than his worst fears, because before that dust settles, more has happened than he could have conceived that morning while he was rehearsing his 'acceptance speech.' This is the funniest scene in the film, a classic little study of human nature when everything that can possibly go wrong does. It's not slapstick; it's just a three-way conversation between David, his boss, and a bald man from New York. Before his boss even has a chance to really say anything, David launches into his thank you's and what a great day it is and how he is going to practically live at the agency from now on, giving the new job his all. That's great, his boss says, except you're not being promoted, you're going to New York to work on a new account (Ford) as Brad's (the bald man) assistant. Nothing in David's repertoire of responses is adequate to reply to this; part of his overcoming the nagging worry was to totally dismiss the possibility of this happening. So he loses it, completely. He rips into his boss, into Brad, into Brad's impromptu idea for a jingle ("this little Town Car, will drive you away" to the tune of 'New York, New York'), into his wasted years at the agency, into his boss's hairpiece, into New York itself ("if you think it's so great, why don't YOU go to New York?" he shouts). By the end of all this, which has taken less than fifteen minutes, he not only doesn't have the promotion, he's been fired. All of which is just the set-up for the rest of the film. A super-hyped-up David dashes to Linda's office and breathlessly tells her what happened, desperately trying to put the best spin on things. He decides on the spur of the moment that they should sell everything they own and drop out of society, "like they did in 'Easy Rider.'" One of the ideas he spews out has to do with uninhibited sex (I think) and concludes with the inspired thought that "there are some people you f*** in front of and some people you don't. We'll FIND THE ONES... and then we'll spend the rest of our lives f****** in front of them!" Linda tries to calm him down before he hyperventilates but soon he is rushing off to price motorhomes. From there, they head off across America in a Winnebago, to "touch Indians" among other things, but the trek turns out to be an abbreviated one as they only make it as far as Arizona, after Linda gambles away all their money in Las Vegas. There are other funny moments which inevitably seem a bit anti-climactic after the high-intensity rush of laughter induced by the above-mentioned two scenes. Still, it is a well-paced comedy that finds Brooks at a peak, consistently coming up with funny lines and situations. Many of the ideas hit very close to home with young urban professionals, if they are self-observant enough to notice. Not too many films are really 'laugh out loud' funny, but 'Lost in America' is one of them.
newmyer54
This is one of those movies where all the comedic scenes would fit in the trailer. The rest of the time is spent wondering why this is/was a top-rated comedy. Just never could quite figure that out.Most of the attempts at humor were just plain juvenile and were interspersed between scripting that was just plain slow and plodding.We thought about turning it off just over half way through, but figured that due to the reviews something good had to eventually happen. Sadly we were wrong.My faith in the IMDb review process (this one got generally good marks) has been shaken a bit.
tbyrne4
Few comedies can truly be called cinematic masterpieces. Particularly in the last two decades we've seen a real scarcity of comic inspiration in the cinema. Albert Brooks' "Lost in America" is brilliant. Easily the best comedy of the bloated 1980s, possibly of the last thirty years. It ranks among the works of Preston Sturges in terms of sheer comic invention.Albert Brooks and Julie Hagerty are a Los Angeles yuppie couple who are happily married but feel stuck in the go-go 1980s decade of shallow materialism. When Brooks doesn't get the promotion he feels he deserves he spontaneously quits and convinces his wife to do the same. they liquidate their assets, buy a mobile home and ride off "just like Easy Rider" into America, to find themselves and "touch Indians".One thing about Brooks' comedy style: it is brutally, brutally cynical. You just know their jaunt into the heartland of America isn't going to end well. And yet, Brooks' sincerity about his character "making a statement" about selling everything and going off in search of America is clearly genuine. That what makes this film so remarkable. This is a portrait of an artist in wild conflict with himself. When Brooks sees the Mercedes at the end and the film shifts to soft-focus lighting and we hear a choir singing - that has to be one of the funniest, yet most cynical moments in any comedy ever made.I would highly recommend this film to anyone. However, not everyone "gets" Brooks' style of comedy. Some people seem to find him annoying. But he is one of the funniest men alive, too.Also, the scene with Brooks and the casino manager when Brooks pitches his advertising "idea", is one of the funniest scenes in film history.
