Review of Road Hard (2015) by Steve J — 25 Mar 2015

I've been listening to the podcast for years, so I was really excited to see this movie, having heard about it from its inception, through its production, and onto release. I'm not saying it disappointed, but I think he was writing in one direction and directing in another.

The film itself had the tone and feel of a comedy-drama along the lines of the Squid and the Whale, Orange is the New Black, or The Truman Show, but just misses the mark with the script. Everyone, with perhaps the only exception being Cynthy Wu, gave pitch perfect performances.

Cynthy Wu's portrayal as his daughter was believable, and she's a good actor, but some of her lines were delivered flatly when they should have had more emotion. It's a difficult job, I know, and I'm not saying she was bad, just not as polished as everyone else in the picture.

There are no laugh out loud moments or memorable lines, but a compelling story about life on the road for a comedian. You were made to feel sympathy for this guy who once had it big and now life sucks for him.

It's really difficult to get an audience to connect with a character, and I think Carolla accomplished that very well. The problems arose where he was trying to make the audience laugh, I feel. I know that Kevin Hench co-wrote and co-directed this movie, but without a filmography with sole credit, its difficult to know what were his contributions and what were Adam's, so I assume most of this is Adam Carolla with Hench assisting.

I think Adam is very talented, and if given the idea to write, direct, and produce a less 'ha-ha' more 'this is life' kind of movie, he could be the next Wes Anderson. All the pieces were there, he just went slap-stick when he should have gone black.

(case in point, the scene with the divorcee. It's obvious what he was trying to do there, but it didn't work, and if he had gone in a different direction with that scene, same idea but different outcomes, along with some others that were played for laughs, it would have been a much better film in the context of the overall tone and feel of the directing).