"The Mosquito Coast," 1986.

the movie that answers the question: what if codyslab was a sociopath?

without question in my eyes Ford's greatest performance, an incredible downward spiral that reads as an inverted There Will Be Blood, unstoppable drive and the implacable insane itching to succeed and thrive and learn and conquer only to be met with failure and humiliation at every turn, and even when everyone, including his own tormented, broken, abused family turn against him, he can't help himself, he's always inventing, always pushing, always fighting, and because he's incapable of seeing anything but his own solipsistic, individualistic drive, he always fails, exposes the broken, cruel, narcissistic, racist machinery underneath, until he's nothing but a chattering head with a death drive. you loved america so much you became it, you freako!

the shot of allie screaming, the scream distorted into digital chaos, watching as his dream is destroyed in front of him and his humanity disappears forever into raw-nerve mania is absolutely beautiful, horrible, a nightmare

anyway that's all well and good but even better is the great Martha Plimpton saying "I think about you when I go to the bathroom." she gets like two scenes and steals them both. we love martha plimpton here