TWO-LANE BLACKTOP
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 // Midnite
Friday, April 5, 2013 // 10:00pm
Saturday, April 6, 2013 // 9:50pm

Monte Hellman’s early-’70s stone classic, in the perfect time-slot! Two of the hottest leading men of the seventies — James Taylor, and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys — pit their souped-up Chevy against Warren Oates’ GTO in a cross-country race, with hippie chick runaway Laurie Bird along for the ride. Oates gives one of his greatest performances as the self-deluding burn-out in pastel sweaters, with a trunkful of drugs, hooked on the next thrill — and the boys, neither of whom had acted before or have since, are supercool, laconic naturals. The point of it all isn’t who wins, but the getting there, and the making of contact along the way. Yes, it’s an existential metaphor for the human condition, if you want it to be, but it’s also the ultimate American road movie, with a brilliant, near-invisible script by Rudy Wurlitzer, and one of the most incendiary endings in ‘70s cinema. Come see why Two-Lane Blacktop was just added to the National Film Registry — these satisfactions are permanent.
Dir. Monte Hellman, 1971, 35mm, 102 min.

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