1988 Honda Accord, 1992 Dodge Spirit: Odd cars for two great movies, Frozen River, Wendy and Lucy

Frozen River features the story of Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom lured into illegal immigrant smuggling when she meets a Mohawk girl who lives on a reservation that straddles the U.S.-Canadian border.

In Wendy and Lucy, leading actress Michelle Williams lives in her 1988 Honda Accord. But as she make her way across the country en route to Alaska, the Honda Accord breaks down in a small Oregon town — and that’s when the plot of the movie begins.

It’s unlikely either General Motors or Honda is seeking the kind of publicity the manufacturers are getting in the respective movies. But it’s also a perfect example of the  axiom: “all publicity is good publicity.”