“Rules of the Road” tells the story of a love affair and its demise through one of the primary objects shared by the couple: an old beige station wagon with fake wood paneling along the sides. A typical American family car for an atypical American family, it provides them at first with all the familiar comforts. But when their relationship ends, the car becomes the property of one woman and the bane of the other’s existence. Even long after their separation, this tangible reminder of their life together – and thousands of its imitators- continues to prowl the streets of the city, haunting the woman who no longer holds the keys either to the car or to the other woman’s heart. “Rules of the Road” is also a study in theme and variations. In this case, the theme is the standard wagon. The variations are a consequence of experience, the accumulation of which transforms the object and makes us continually invest it with new meanings. This sense of constant change happens during the course of the film just as surely as it happens to us in our daily lives. Through spoken text, popular music and images from the streets of New York, “Rules of the Road” takes a somewhat whimsical and somewhat caustic look at how our dreams of freedom, pleasure, security, and a family are so often and so acutely symbolized by the automobile. “…the light, almost whimsical tone of the film should not blind us to the part of it that is irreducibly personal. Station wagons are everywhere; everybody’s got a sad love story. But only one filmmaker, to my knowledge, has Su Friedrich’s eye…With ‘Rules of the Road,’ she creates a film like a perfect short story.” – Stuart Klawans, The Nation
