Aug 17 2005 09:17 PM
Roadside Prophets (1992) is a tale of Joe Mosely (John Doe), an LA factory worker and a biker who keeps his own company. One day, he takes a newcomer from the factory out for a beer, only to see his mysterious new bud killed before he's done relating his life story. Feeling bad that someone should die unmourned, he takes it upon himself to bring the deceased's ashes to El Dorado, NV, where the man had been expressing a wish to visit at the time of his death.
Thus begins a road movie. Mosely is soon joined by Sam (Adam Horovitz), a hyperactive idiot man-child who takes Joe's disinterest in him for coolness, and, with no encouragement, buys a bike and begins to model himself after Joe.
The titular prophets though aren't the two of them, though, but rather the garrulous countercultural types they run into at every greasy spoon, cocktail dive, and filling station on the way to El Dorado --- many played by garrulous countercultural types (Arlo Guthrie, Timothy Leary, David Carradine) playing variations on themselves. As the prophets prattle on, the journey becomes a mythic quest through the American west and in search of the American spirit.
John Cusack appears as a roadside whackjob that is somewhat reminiscent of the roadside whackjob his character Gib pretended to be in The Sure Thing. The doses of satire sprinkled in (like every time someone turns on a TV) are unfunny and dated, and, despite the modest production values and mostly amateur acting, Roadside Prophets is at it's best when it's willing to hit you straight.