79Lost in America (1985) – TIE

Having made two idiosyncratic films, Real Life and Modern Romance, Albert Brooks’ third comedy, co-written with Monica Johnson, was a road movie of sorts, with plenty of room for Brooks’ inimitable comic indignation to flourish. David and Linda, a yuppie couple, abruptly quit their corporate jobs, buy a Winnebago, and resolve to drop out of society, only to see their idealistic plan – and their “nest egg” – vanish when Linda (Julie Hagerty) gambles all their money away at a roulette table in Las Vegas. The screenplay was honored by the National Society of Film Critics. “The movie is so good that it needs to flower; it's like a Sturges idea that runs dry,” The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael wrote.