Freeway (1996)

A twisted take on "Little Red Riding Hood", with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker travelling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer and pedophile.

Director:

Matthew Bright

Writer:

Matthew Bright

Stars:

Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Bokeem Woodbine

6 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kiefer Sutherland	...	Bob Wolverton
Reese Witherspoon	...	Vanessa Lutz
Bokeem Woodbine	...	Chopper
Paul Perri	...	Cop #1
Robert Peters	...	Cop #2
Ben Meyerson	...	Cop at Truckstop
Craig Barnett	...	Cop #3
G. Eric Miles	...	Cop #4
Wolfgang Bodison	...	Detective Breer
Dan Hedaya	...	Detective Wallace
Chris Renna	...	Doctor
Kathleen Marshall	...	ER Nurse
Melinda Renna	...	Female Anchor
Guillermo Díaz	...	Flacco
Kitty Fox	...	Grandma

Storyline

Little Red Riding Hood for the 1990's: After her mom and step-dad are arrested, 15-year-old Vanessa Lutz decides that instead of once again being put into a foster home, she'd rather go and search for the grandmother she's never met, and live with her. "On the way to grandma's house," (actually a trailer park) Vanessa's car breaks down, and she's picked up from the side of the road by Bob Wolverton, a counselor at a school for troubled boys. Bob slowly earns Vanessa's trust, and eventually convinces her to talk about her sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. When Vanessa realizes that Bob is enjoying what she's saying, she realizes that he's "The I-5 Killer," from the news. She tries to get out of his truck, but the inside door handle has been removed...

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Plot Keywords:

freeway | 15 year old | trailer park | police | school | 

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Taglines:

No Exit

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong lurid violence and sexual dialogue, some sexual situations, drug content and language

Details

Country:

USA France

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 September 1997 (France)

Also Known As:

Sin salida

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,945, 25 August 1996, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$295,493, 13 March 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Kushner-Locke Company, August Entertainment, Davis-Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min (uncut) 102 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The 94132 zip code shown on Vanessa's picture of her father is not in Stockton, California, it is actually located in San Francisco.

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Goofs

Vanessa's ponytail reappears several times after being cut off.

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Quotes

Vanessa Lutz: If you try anything, I'm going to shoot you so many times!

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Crazy Credits

The beginning credits play over a series of color drawings (in a style similar to cartoonist Robert Crumb) in a hip retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story.

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Alternate Versions

The US R-rated version is missing two minutes of graphic violence and more sexually explicit dialogue.

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Connections

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

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Soundtracks

ADIOS AL PRESIDIO
Written by Jose Chavez H.
Performed by Los Hermanos Vega
Published by Two Crowns International Music Publishing
Courtesy of Discos Dos Coronas

User Reviews

Witherspoon Starshine

In other hands this story might have become just another cheesy teen exploitation flick. But in Matthew Bright's "Freeway" we have a solid script, confident direction, an excellent supporting cast, and a gleefully twisted world view, all backing up a boldly brilliant star-turn performance by Reese Witherspoon. Her Vanessa Lutz is brazen, coarse, violent, manipulative, and seemingly doomed no matter which way she turns. But at the end of the day, of every day, she remains her own person, and nothing can intimidate or stop her. Witherspoon seems to live and breathe this demanding role, with never a hint of 'acting a part' -- which is to say she is doing some very fine acting indeed. Vanessa Lutz is a role like Forrest Gump, though even more challenging, where one tiny step out of character would spoil the whole thing. But Miss Witherspoon never misses.

Plus, it was great to see Kiefer Sutherland play a smarmy, goody-two-shoes psychopathic villain. Much more fun than his trained chipmunk limp-wrist tendentiousness in "24." I have seen no evidence that this man can actually act, but he really does not need to here. When he first appeared on screen I thought, 'Oh no, this movie's over.' But soon I discovered, to my delight, that he he had been cast precisely for his pathetic loser quality.

For some reason IMDB classifies Freeway as a 'crime/drama,' which mostly misses the point. It is a diabolical black comedy with lots of violent action, some of it realistic, but most of it wonderfully absurd. All in all it earns a solid 8/10 for being funny and satisfying, a movie which I would happily watch again.