Road Trip to Nowhere

"Anyone who knows '60s films will be delighted to encounter this list of characters, who are so iconic, yet understudied until now. An engrossing and consequential contribution to film history."--Dana Polan, author of Dreams of Flight: The Great Escape in American Film and Culture "Lewis is one of our most eloquent and thought-provoking commentators on the mind meld between American film and culture, a critic who has all the best arrows in his quiver: a sharp eye for cinematic detail and cultural meaning, scholarly chops, and accessible, lively prose."--Thomas Doherty, author of Little Lindy Is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century "Road Trip to Nowhere picks up, amplifies and deepens Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Lewis's customary attention to the telling detail and his grasp of the historical moment makes the clash between a countercultural movement and an entrenched Hollywood industry, not knowing what to make of this challenge but forced to accommodate to it, come vividly to life. At this point Lewis needs to be acknowledged not only as an astute critic detailing the underside and contradictions of the Hollywood industry--most especially also in his '40s recounting of the fringes of the filmdom in Hardboiled Hollywood--but also as one of its great chroniclers. His gift for storytelling in a crisp, clear, totally compelling fashion is a continual delight."--Dennis Broe, author of Diary of a Digital Plague Year: Corona Culture, Serial TV and The Rise of the Streaming Services