ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS World Cinema: American Showcase

This surprising, disorienting comedy is a missile, a brilliantly smart bomb fired straight at the heart of mainstream cinema.

It begins as the chronicle of counterculture folk hero Judas (played alternately by Aaron Ruell and Eddie Kaye Thomas) and his quest for love. But it grows in myriad and unexpected directions, exploring the process of storytelling and displaying an irresistible disrespect for convention. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to call ON THE ROAD WITH JUDAS the best film about the making of a film based on a JJ Lask book about David Lee Roth and stealing Apple IICs ever made.

Writer/ director/actor Lask, who really did write the book from which the film explodes, marshals the full power of his irreverence, bringing his ingenious script to full, vibrant life. Joined by a stellar cast, Lask introduces us first to his characters, then to the ‘actors’ playing them and then spends the rest of the film switching between these realities with dazzling deftness. What could have easily been a postmodern miasma becomes something far better: a singularly entertaining and hilarious film.