On Criterion, I watched Lost in America, a 1985 comedy written and directed by Albert Brooks, starring Brooks and Julie Hagerty as David and Linda, a yuppie couple in L.A. who feel bored with their bourgeois lives. David works at an advertising agency, and Linda works at a department store. David is expecting to get a promotion to senior vice president after having been at the agency for eight years, while Linda, despite getting promotions, is bored at her job and doesn't like the house they've lived in for seven years or the house they've just bought. When David doesn't get the promotion and is instead offered a transfer to their New York offices to work on an account for Ford, he throws a fit and curses out his boss and is immediately fired. He convinces Linda to quit her job too, and that they should sell their house, liquidate their savings, having $150,000 to their name, and go get a motor home and live out on the open road, living out David's Easy Rider fantasies. They do all of that, and go to Las Vegas with the plans of renewing their vows, but then Linda loses all their money in gambling at the roulette table, and they are dead broke and have to figure out how to manage from then on, not being prepared for being poor without their nest egg.
What is hilarious and smart about this film is how good Brooks is at making fun of Reagan-era yuppies who fantasize about the 1960s counterculture movement, but still want the security of their massive nest eggs. When David is talking about wanting to "drop out," but still having a lot of money, and Linda says how the guys in Easy Rider dropped out but weren't rich, David counters by saying they sold cocaine to get by, insisting that they still had a high income.
Brooks nails the entitlement of these characters, especially David, who keeps trying to bribe people or wanting special treatment at every corner. When they go to a Vegas hotel, he bribes the concierge $50 to check again if the bridal suite is occupied, then bribes another $50 when the concierge tells him his price is $100. Then the "bridal suite" turns out to be the "junior bride suite" with double heart-shaped beds instead of a single, and no tub for their bath fantasy.
One of the standout scenes of the film is when, after Linda loses all their money, David meets with the casino manager (Garry Marshall) to try to get their money back, and continually acts as if he is different than other Vegas tourists who lost at gambling, insisting that he and his wife are the "bold" ones who just made a mistake, and aren't like the "schmucks to come to see Wayne Newton." The manager: "I like Wayne Newton. That makes me a schmuck?" He tries his angle of offering advertising tips for the casino, to make them seem more welcoming and open to giving money back to tourists who lose, and keeps trying to act as if he's better or more special than others, to which the casino manager stays professional about their policy but is clearly annoyed by David's hubris.
Another wonderful scene is when David goes to an employment office, and to the employment agent (Art Frankel), after listing his white collar resume with his past job of $80K yearly salary and a bonus of $15-20K, is asking if there are any jobs in the $100K salary range, which is ludicrous to ask of an employment office that mostly have minimum wage jobs and low-level secretarial jobs at best. David goes "I wanted to change my life." The agent "You couldn't do that on $100,000?"
I really liked this movie a lot, and I liked that it wasn't so much of a fantasy of them living on the open road, but about them immediately not being able to handle financial challenges or setbacks and wanting to run back to their old lives as soon as possible. It's a great film, and I'm glad I checked it out.
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