Document
World Premier
Jason Massot/ UK 2010/ 90 min/ tbc
What stikes you about Jason Massot’s intriguing documentary is his
tenacity. Road to Las Vegas follows a struggling American family for
four long, tough years, and then manages to bring together a coherent
narrative from what must have been a jumble of fighting, drunkenness
and hanging around.
Maurice, Vanessa and their children are in search of a better life, so
they pack up a car, leave their home in Alaska and head to Las Vegas.
The idea of the pioneer spirit and the cross state journey to a better
life is a very American dream, and Massot places us firmly in the
American landscape with an array of beautiful scenery as seen from a
car window. The film opens with a definite sense of the grandeur and
the infinite possibility of life, but as the reality of living in
their car and struggling to get work takes its toll, we start to see
that Vanessa’s dreams, held together by a tenacity that outshines
Massot’s, may not in the end come true. We follow Maurice’s decent
back to drugs, and watch Vanessa struggle to cope. It is the very
compelling characters of Maurice and Vanessa that stops Road to Las
Vegas descending into voyeurism or poverty porn, and that they are
still together at the end is proof of just how powerful love and the
family bond can be. But you can’t help wondering if their long
suffering children, who have remained silent throughout, might have a
very different idea of what love and family really mean.
Showing @ Cineworld 17th June 17:45
@ Filmhouse 20th June 20:45
Get Tix @ EIFF