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SATURDAY

My dad was quite the gearhead in his day, raising hell and burning rubber whether on a motorcycle or in a Mustang. So it surprised me that he didn’t recall Two-Lane Blacktop, Monte Hellman’s 1971 cult film about two stoic dudes drag-racing their way across the country in a primer-gray ’55 Chevy. Credited only as the Driver and the Mechanic, respectively, James Taylor and the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson skip the ponderous pseudophilosophical discourse of other road-movie heroes, talking mostly about carburetors, exhaust pipes, and finding suckers to race in order to get more bread. Still, the film does have its deep moments, such as when the Driver, told he’s driving too fast, declares, “You can never go fast enough.” Hell, yeah. Eventually, my dad confessed he had gone to the movie but didn’t remember much because he’d seen it back in high school. On a date. At a drive-in. Yuck. Try to keep your hands to yourself when the film screens at 4:30 p.m. as part of the “Open Road Family Festival” at the National Museum of American History, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 357-2700. (Jason Powell)