Freewheeling road adventures and mobile phone technology may seem counterintuitive. Since the advent of Google Maps, it’s been harder to get lost, and 24/7 access to the internet means it’s easier to check WhatsApp instead up soaking up new surroundings. After all, if Jack Kerouac had a smartphone, he may have bashed out On the Road in tweets, Instagram captions, and weirdly personal Airbnb reviews.

An exception is Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross’s Gasoline Rainbow, a thrilling, semi-improvised movie that follows five teens as they spontaneously traverse 500 miles across America in search of the ultimate hang-out. All played by non-actors, the impulsive, mischievous gang – Tony Abuerto, Micah Bunch, Nichole Dukes, Nathaly Garcia, Makai Garza – exit their hometown of Oregon with the vague goal of reaching the Pacific Coast. There, they hear, is “The Party at the End of the World”, and they’re willing to make that journey by hitchhiking, train-hopping, and whatever else it takes. With some receiving “additional photography” credits, the young leads snap selfies and capture their whirlwind escapades on their phones, all while still living in the moment.

“We didn’t take away their phones,” says Bill Ross IV over a video call. “But the point of this experiment was to be present.”

“They’re not great at reading maps,” says Turner Ross, sat next to his brother. “Just because you have a phone, it doesn’t mean you can’t get lost.”

Both in their early 40s, the Ross brothers co-wrote, co-directed, and co-edited Gasoline Rainbow while wondering how they would handle the pandemic if they were teens today. As they did in 2020’s Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, the sibling filmmakers constructed a fictional narrative and allowed their first-time performers to run wild within the parameters – organised chaos, if you will. While viewers may swear they’re watching a documentary, that simply speaks to the natural charisma drawn out of from real kids flung into real locations.

“We had so many experiences like this but we didn’t want to retell our tale,” says Turner. “We wanted to learn and see what’s happening with this generation. You can only go through that moment once. You’re leaving home, heading into an uncertain world, not knowing who you’re supposed to be. We wanted them to go out and find their mirrors; to find others like them, or who had been like them. It was a real act of discovery, actually, for them. They’re really going through these cathartic moments that lead to some new uncertainty.”

Known for blurring the line between fiction and reality, the Ross brothers have shot films such as 45365 (a snapshot of the locals in their hometown in Ohio), Tchoupitoulas (three men, none of whom are actors, miss a ferry and wander through New Orleans at night), and Contemporary Color (behind the scenes of a David Byrne concert). While Bloody Noses, Empty Pockets is ostensibly a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the final night before a Las Vegas bar shuts down, it was actually filmed over four weeks with hired actors in Louisiana. Likewise, in Gasoline Rainbow, the teens all attend Wiley High School, an institution that doesn’t really exist; even strangers encountered along the way were hand-selected by the Ross brothers.

“We curate the people, the places, the stimuli,” says Turner. “But we want the people in front of the camera to have license to be and do what they want. The more we compose, the better the outcome, and the more we let go, the truer the takeaway.”

Once their van’s tyres are stolen, the gang turn resourceful and rely on strangers, many of whom wish to party, smoke weed, and chat philosophy until the early hours. Key figures include elder punk rockers and some nimble hitchhikers who teach the teens how to hop onto passing freight trains. Even if it’s planned, there’s still an undeniable joy from witnessing five kids hop onto a passing carriage while screaming their heads off.

“That’s the kind of stuff we heavily conceive and prepare in advance,” says Turner of the train sequence. “Every day was different, and there was one shot at doing everything. If any of those days fell apart, the entire thing would fall apart. Bill and I ran that route over and over again. When we arrived in those moments, we knew where we were going, even if the kids were having that experience for the first time.”

As for constructing a two-hour feature from endless footage, the Ross brothers describe an unusual approach: Bill created a five-hour assembly cut; Turner came up with a video-only version; and an assistant editor concocted an audio-only edit. The trio worked separately for three months without sharing notes. “It revealed how little we needed to tell the story,” says Bill. “It was like, we could tell a story just visually, or a moment from just audio. If the film’s hypnotic, it stems from that approach.”

Subsequently, the film maintains a textured, blissed-out musicality whereby a wistful voiceover may not match whoever’s face is in the frame. In theatres, then, the Ross brothers have found that the film has proven to be a blast, particularly with younger viewers. In Spain, a 500-seat theatre was attended almost entirely by teens, and led to chanting, screaming, and applauding throughout the two-hour running time.

“I thought we were getting punk’d,” says Turner, laughing. “It’s gone over very well. Our great hope is that our protagonists’ peers see themselves in this film, and make it their own.”

In the UK, though, Gasoline Rainbow will only be getting a streaming release. After apologising in advance, I suggest to the Ross brothers that their film would work particularly well on a phone, perhaps on a bus or train, as that would complement the storyline and mirror the characters’ use of devices.

“I know the way I like to watch movies,” says Turner. “But as long as people are experiencing it, you know? Do it your own way!” It’s brought up that with Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, I played it on a loop as background noise during lockdown, almost like ASMR. “I remember you [from that interview]!” says Turner. “We can’t be precious about it. We send it off into the world, and people are going to do what they want with it.”

“We make these things to share them,” says Bill. “We hope people find it in their own way.”

While the Ross brothers hope Gasoline Rainbow will be discovered by teenagers, they also believe that older viewers will take lessons from the actors’ risk-taking attitude and camaraderie.

“I hope we can all look at this in different ways,” says Turner. “What we didn’t want to do was be didactic about who this generation is. There’s plenty of writing about the film that’s derogatory or encapsulates who they are. We didn’t want to judge. We just wanted to see what the fuck was up with the new kids, and let them speak for themselves.”

What did they consider to be derogatory?

“Zoomers,” says Bill. “Them being described as Zoomers.”

“Boxing people in,” says Turner. “Be more articulate.”

“We can’t speak for an entire generation, and I think it’s weird to try to encapsulate an entire generation in criticism,” says Bill. “It’s not just writing about the film – I think that in general. This film has a pocket of people who speak for their experience. They can’t speak for everybody but this is what we found, and what we found was good. They’re the co-authors of that.”

Gasoline Rainbow is exclusively on MUBI in the UK and Ireland now. 

The Dazed x MUBI Cinema Club will host a screening of Gasoline Rainbow at MUBI FEST, along with a Q&A with the directors, back-to-back creative talks, and more. Entrance to MUBI FEST Manchester is free and includes all talks, workshops, and DJ sets. However, tickets for film screenings in the Hall at Aviva Studios cost £8 per person. We will be doing exclusive £5 tickets for everyone on the Dazed Club app. Tickets for the screenings will go on sale at noon on June 6, and they can be found here.