Lost in America (dir: Albert Brooks, 1985) is a quintessential road movie. A man who is fired from his job, but his already dissatisfied with his life, convinces his wife to quit her job and head out on the open road to 'touch the Indians." She too is dissatisfied: with her job, with her marriage, with her life. As in a typical road movie, their journey is not a journey to any particular place. Instead, it's a journey of self-discovery. What is atypical is that what they discover is not a cliched lesson like learning that there is more to life than the shallow materialistic world they left. Instead, they discover that they are shallow, materialistic people. The difference is that they can now be happy living the life they thought they left behind. They discover that, in the words of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, that "there's no place like home."
Lost in America is a funny film, but it doesn't go for cheap laughs. There aren't any of what you would normally think of as gags. Instead, the humor is character driven. In addition to the two protagonists, every minor character is sharply drawn and memorable. They all feel real even though their screen time may only be a few minutes. This is the trick to creating a successful road movie.