Joyride

I kinda liked this. It was a minor, somewhat pointless young-folks semi-road trip piece with some robbery/hostage thrown in, but everything it did was done well enough. Good performances, decent conflict, moderately well-directed and -written. I thought it would be like Crossroads (the Britney version) but it was way better than that, and not attached to coming-of-age ideas. Misleading title. 

Of note for a handful of minor things. An early part for Melanie Griffith - and she's just fine, although she hadn't learned to moderate her babydoll voice, so she sounds a bit whiny. Robert Carradine (who is not of the John/David clan), is in it; he's perhaps best known as the bucktoothed dork in Revenge of the Nerds, but he's a charismatic leader type in this one. Desi Arnaz, Jr. is in it too, and he's more meh, although certainly recognizable. ELO did all the music, and that seems to have been a selling point, but it only sometimes fits well. 

There was an interesting moment when I thought the triangle between two guys and a girl was going to develop into a threesome, or at least a...something, but it didn't. The girl kept switching partners while they danced in the kitchen, as the guys handed off a bottle of liquor between them. It was a nice scene, unusual, well-shot, well-conceived, expressing something real. 

Not much inherent 70s stuff here, aside from the haircuts. I could see this being an indie these days, barely altered.