This brilliant comedy is the best-ever showcase for Albert Brooks's comic genius, as a writer, director, and actor. His satire is well pointed and his delivery of dialogue is uniquely inflected and hilarious. Most of the scenes are nothing more than confrontations between him and another character, but they are nicely varied and impeccably played: Brooks's manic unraveling in front of his boss as he quits his advertising job; Brooks trying to convince Gary Marshall (as a Vegas casino executive) to give him his lost money back; Brooks explaining the "nest egg principle" to Julie Hagerty (as his wife) after she has blown their life savings at roulette; Brooks's interview with a cynical small town job counselor; Brooks as a crossing guard taunted by obnoxious pre-teens on bicycles (the funniest such scene since W.C. Fields); Brooks's telephone conversation with a supercilious Mercedes salesman; Brooks applying for a job as a drug store delivery boy (he plans to use his Winebago); Brooks's incredulous meeting with Skippy, his wife's 19-year-old new boss at a fast food joint. Well, you get the idea. It's a tour-de-force for Brooks, and an unsung comic masterpiece.
Review of Lost in America
