Premiering in the states at SXSW Film Festival earlier this spring, Gasoline Rainbow is a near documentary-style coming of age film, starring five recent graduates from small town Oregon venturing off on a road trip to the Pacific coast together as one final hurrah before deciding what to do with their respective futures. Directed by brothers Bill and Turner Ross, the cast is comprised of first time actors utilizing their real names and near unscripted dialogue as they embark on a journey to learn more about others as well as themselves.
Close up camerawork shots as well as scenes depicted on phones offer an intimate look at our Gen-Z’ers and raw footage of their adolescent adventure. Lingering views of the coastal beauty or conversations between the film’s protagonists and new friends adds to living in the moment as well as the groundedness, yet superficiality, of conversations between characters. Gasoline Rainbow is chock full of songs from generation’s past (Guns ‘n’ Roses, The Beatles), painting a soundtrack to their summer while riding in their janky van (before it inevitably breaks down in the middle of nowhere). The teens are hopeful, curious, yet ambivalent about thinking much past the here and now. Tony’s undecided whether or not to sign up for the military once they return home, whereas others like Micah wrestle with the responsibilities he’s had to carry on his shoulders in light of his absent parents. “The difference between grown ups and children is that grown ups aren’t supervised”, says one character they meet along the way, portraying both the freedom and the obligations that our 17 year olds will soon be facing.
In a similar vein as Linklater’s Slackers or Larry Clark’s Kids, Gasoline Rainbow feels relatively authentic yet manages to sidle away from many of the explicit experiences that makes some coming of age films feel obvious or bleak. The teens are less interested in ways to lose their virginity and are more concerned with seeking out unexplored terrain. They maintain an innocent curiosity towards strangers and new individuals they encounter, with a mindset of living while you’re alive and sleeping when you’re dead. Both the directors and actors embrace an optimism to their widening world lest they take anything for granted in their limited time away from home.
Reminiscent of the finite period between finishing high school and leaving home, the Ross brothers successfully capture that time in space quite accurately and poignantly. Though with its near two hour run time, the viewing experience became more of a glaze over and at times arguably too long to get too engrossed in the story. Perhaps the desire of authenticity would have been better fit as a short, Gasoline Rainbow still maintains a solid degree of merit in its raw lens to the youth and their dreams, hopes and ultimately promising view of the future.
