
In American cinema, the road has become equal parts a symbol for individualism (or alienation) and a stage for dramas of bonding and maturing. It’s a suitable setting for stories about self-realization because, at least in this country, many formative experiences and rites of passage really are centered around the road. Then, of course, there are the road movies that are mostly about dick jokes, with more or less artfully tacked-on morals about coupling or coming of age (think Dumb and Dumber or Road Trip). Director and co-writer Hannah Fidell’s The Long Dumb Road is pulled in both directions, never finding the right mix of m