Curator Watchlist
A quietly moving road movie about forgiveness, dignity, and the stubborn grace of ordinary life. It’s one of David Lynch’s warmest films, but it still carries his eye for landscape, silence, and emotional undercurrents.
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 1h 52m
Director: David Lynch
Starring: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Jane Galloway Heitz
Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
David Lynch
Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Jane Galloway Heitz
A quietly moving road movie about forgiveness, dignity, and the stubborn grace of ordinary life. It’s one of David Lynch’s warmest films, but it still carries his eye for landscape, silence, and emotional undercurrents.
The Straight Story is a small miracle: a film about an elderly man riding a lawnmower across Iowa that becomes one of cinema’s most humane journeys. David Lynch strips away menace and mystery without losing his sensitivity to mood, letting the open road, the weather, and the people Alvin meets do the emotional work.
Richard Farnsworth gives the film its steady heartbeat, playing Alvin with pride, stubbornness, and deep regret. What could have been sentimental becomes something sturdier and more moving: a story about making peace before time runs out, and about how kindness can arrive in the plainest forms.
It’s also one of those rare films that feels both deeply American and quietly spiritual. The pacing is unhurried, the emotions are earned, and the final effect is less a big catharsis than a long exhale. If you want a film that leaves you softened rather than overwhelmed, this is an excellent choice.
David Sims (5★) · 6083 likes
SIG: What do you need that grabber for, Alvin? ALVIN: Grabbin'. (a perfect movie)
#1 gizmo fan (4.5★) · 5946 likes
I can't believe Lynch made a film that actually filled my heart with love and comfort instead of dread and confusion.
Josh Larsen (4★) · 4418 likes
I love how Lynch teases us with the possibility that this could go full Blue Velvet at any moment.
tyler (4★) · 3530 likes
walt disney pictures presents a film by david lynch is by far the best opening credit of all time
Logan Kenny (5★) · 2860 likes
people who don't think this is lynchian through and through are simply wrong honestly, it taps into the core themes of his work, the love and empathy that human beings can share with each other in spite of or because of trauma and pain, and that there is beauty all around us, even if it takes a 300 mile lawnmower ride to fully witness this. cried about 50 times, but one of those movies that makes your soul heal, that
A similarly plainspoken Midwestern journey built on deadpan humor, regret, and family tension.
An offbeat but heartfelt story about family, loss, and the strange tenderness of ordinary life.
A mournful American portrait of fading places, aging, and emotional unfinished business.
A spare, compassionate drama about a damaged man finding grace through simple human connection.
A quiet, stripped-down road-adjacent film that finds deep feeling in hardship and small encounters.
Gentle, observant, and rooted in landscape, with a strong sense of place and understated wonder.
For viewers drawn to rural settings and moral pressure, though this one turns far darker.
Another late-life road film centered on regret, self-knowledge, and a man reassessing his life.
A deeply human Southern drama about repentance, community, and spiritual reckoning.
A gruff, late-life redemption story that also uses ordinary encounters to reshape a man’s worldview.
A classic American pastoral with strong sense of place and a romanticized rural atmosphere.
An intimate domestic drama about disappointment, aging, and the ache of missed chances.
forgiveness, family reconciliation, aging, redemption, rural America, journey and pilgrimage, quiet spirituality, dignity
road movie, heartland, meditative, emotional, late-life drama, forgiveness, rural, spiritual, slow cinema, 1990s