Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated American Indie Films of 2018: #70. Hannah Fidell’s The Long Dumb Road

Published on January 16, 2018

The Long Dumb Road

One of the last items to enter the Sundance film festival, Hannah Fidell visited Park City with A Teacher (review) in 2013, and followed this with 6 Years (review) – a SXSW entry in 2015. Co-writing duties are shared with Carson Mell (which promises an infusion of our brand of idiosyncratic humor) and filming took place in two portions (January and April) so we’ll surely get a sense of displacement and not some second unit photography.

With Tony Revolori, Jason Mantzoukas, Taissa Farmiga, Grace Gummer, Ciara Bravo, Ron Livingston and Casey Wilson,
nineteen-year-old Nathan (Revolori) wants to see the “real” America. Armed with a camera to document his journey, Nat leaves behind his childhood home in the Texas suburbs and embarks on solo road trip to Los Angeles, where he will soon be starting his first year of art school. When his car breaks down along the way, Richard (Mantzoukas) comes to his aid, striking up a conversation and repairing the engine. On this item, Fidell reteams with director/cinemtographer Andrew Droz Palermo, along with Keegan DeWitt (score) and Zach Clark (editor). Tonally this comedy will sure go a bit “off-road”, fans of the road trip formula will want to check out this diversion.

Release Date/Prediction: This was included in the Premieres section at Sundance. Expect a SXSW showing as well.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).