The journey across America to find something undiscovered about yourself, is a troupe as old as the hills. David Howard (Albert Brooks) and his wife Linda (Julie Hagerty) are on a just thispath. They start as 1980s yuppies. Living in California. But this does not mitigate their emptiness. They decide to sell everything and drop out of the society they are deeply entrenched in. “like in Easy Rider” as they dream and as you say, it is notall sun and snow. They leave L.A. with a hundred thousand dollars. Arriving at Las Vegas, the table calls to them and the roulette wheel at the Desert Inn Casino swallows all of the money they had. David starts exploring ways to shift the loss. One idea is to persuade a casino manager to give the money back as a publicity gimmick. Will he succeed or will he be sent into the desert?

So Criterion collection have done us a solid and released a brilliant but undervalued film. Personally, I am a fan of Albert Brooks as both a director and actor. Funny, insightful, political and revealtory in the psyche of post 60s America, LOST IN AMERICA is his film without a doubt. This said, the film is far more than his contribution or the ever brilliant Julie Hagerty, who is far from the straight man to Brooks. The most compelling part is America. Be it the discussion on the America of uber capitalism, the hypocrasy of counter culture ascent into control or the most profound point of all. How societal pressure underpins your ability to make a life for yourself. LOST IN AMERICA is exceptional for its state of the nation address and is as pertinent now as it was then, in my opinion. As we shift past the mess of Trump, we are here to see if America will reasserts its values as the Howards do.

DISC

Criterion, Criterion, Criterion. They are the best at what they do. Releases are the strongest they have been from any label. But the 2K restoratio has that light hue issue. Not that it is overly terrible but it is noticable from the off. So what do I mean by this? Well it is like the 80s stock issue of over lit, draining colour and slight defused depth of field.

EXTRAS

I really enjoyed director Albert Brooks and filmmaker Robert Weide conversation, which is slightly wrong phrase. Its a 20 odd minute discussion about the film and it is interesting to see the notes of then and now.

Special Features:

• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New conversation with director Albert Brooks and filmmaker Robert Weide
• New interviews with actor Julie Hagerty, executive producer Herb Nanas, and comic writer and director James L. Brooks
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Tobias