Thoughts about the Short History of the Long Road

I liked this film. Sabrina Carpenter stars as Nola, a teenage girl living in a van and traveling America after her father’s death. They were on the road together when he suddenly died.  I think they have been on the road since her early childhood. Nola has to figure out what she does next.

I won’t go into the plot details but I will say that the movie is mostly optimistic. Nola meets mostly nice people during her time on the road including Danny Trejo as an auto repair shop owner. Nola does meet her mother (okay, I spoiled the part of the plot).

While the film is sometimes sad, I don’t think the move was grim or depressing. Nola’s dad might have romanticized their life on the road. Nola did not, she sees that it has some drawbacks, and I don’t the film does either. The life looks a bit lonely.

Carpenter was good in her second non-Disney film (she had a role in the Hate You Give, which was not a Disney film before the Disney/Fox merger). The supporting actors are good. This was the second feature film for writer director Ani Simon-Kennedy.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-short-history-of-the-long-road-movie-review-2020 I found this review fair.

I might watch this again after the year ends.



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