Monte Hellman's 1971 road movie gets the big-screen treatment at The Beverly Theater, bringing that stripped-down, existential slice of American cinema back to life. The film follows a pair of drifters racing their souped-up '55 Chevy across the backroads of the Southwest, challenging a stranger in a Pontiac GTO to a cross-country duel that's less about winning and more about the restless drive to keep moving. Shot with a documentary-like grit, it captures a particular strain of early '70s American disaffection, all sun-bleached highways, diner counters, and long silences between characters who'd rather let their cars do the talking.

The casting alone makes it a curiosity worth revisiting on the big screen: singer-songwriter James Taylor and Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson in their only film roles, alongside Warren Oates delivering one of his most memorably unhinged performances as GTO. Watching it in the Beverly's intimate main theater, with its clean sightlines and sharp acoustics, feels like the right setting for a film that thrives on quiet tension and the low rumble of an engine.