With high school in the rearview, five teenagers from small-town Oregon decide to embark on one last adventure. That’s the premise of “Gasoline Rainbow,” the new film by Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, aka The Ross Brothers, primarily known for free-wheelin’ documentaries like “Tchoupitoulas,” “Western,” and “Contemporary Color.”
The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and screened at the SXSW Film TV Festival and First Look Fest ahead of its May 10 opening in the U.S.. While the Ross brothers are known for quasi-hybrid docs, “Gasoline Rainbow” is essentially their first narrative film, cast and scene-scripted, though its dialogue is all improvised. It definitely feels like the logical next exploration step after their hybrid documentary “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.”
Here’s the official synopsis:
With high school in the rearview, five teenagers from small-town Oregon embark on one last adventure. Piling into a van with a busted tail light, their mission is to make it to a place they’ve never been—the Pacific coast, five hundred miles away. Their plan, in full: “Fuck it.”
By van, boat, train, and foot, their improvised odyssey takes them through desert wilderness, industrial backwaters, and city streets. Along the way, they encounter outsiders from the fringes of the American West and discover that the contours of their lives will be set by trails they blaze themselves. They are forgotten kids from a forgotten town, but they have their freedom, and they have each other, hurtling toward an unknowable future—and The Party at the End of the World.
Here’s the director’s statement from Venice:
The impetus for the film came during lockdown. Facing the precipice of an unknown future, we imagined the cast of “Streetwise” navigating the wild roads of “Easy Rider”—restless youth guided by a spirit of freewheeling exploration, shot out of a cannon into the new frontier. A punk rock “Wizard of Oz.” With a folder of notes and ideas labeled “Episodes of Delinquency” and five first-time actors as our guides, we embarked on a grand adventure. Loosely composed scenarios provided the framework for serendipitous magic—an improvisational self-portrait of the new generation.
“Gasoline Rainbow” stars Tony Abuerto, Micah Bunch, Nichole Dukes, Nathaly Garcia, and Makai Garza, and it was produced by Michael Gottwald and Carlos Zozaya. “Gasoline Rainbow” opens in select theaters on May 10 and then is available to stream exclusively on MUBI starting May 31.