Within the new comedy “Driver’s Ed,” Sam Nivola (of “White Lotus” incest fame) performs a lovesick highschool senior, Jeremy, who has a ardour for films. He made a brief movie that received some type of prize, and he steadily pulls out a bit of video digital camera to seize a second that strikes him as cinematic.
In the event you instructed me that “Driver’s Ed” was itself made by Jeremy, I’d consider you; it has all of the distracted, hurried texture of typical teenage inventive output, batting at large feelings it doesn’t fairly perceive and zigging haphazardly in varied instructions because it makes its technique to the obvious of conclusions. Have been I his movie trainer, I’d give Jeremy a stable B on the task however recommend perhaps he think about majoring in accounting.
Jeremy didn’t make the movie, although. Bobby Farrelly did, he of “Dumb and Dumber” and “There’s One thing About Mary” fame. Farrelly is 67, and Thomas Moffett, who wrote the movie, is 47. So I’m undecided what their excuse is. “Driver’s Ed” is nearly shockingly generic, a boilerplate teen road-trip film whose solely distinct persona trait is having no persona in any respect.
Have been it not for the iPhones and a “lit” right here and a “no cap” there, “Driver’s Ed” might have been made within the early 2000s, these waning days of the final nice teen cinema epoch. It has all of the requisite parts: a nerdy-cute boy protagonist, a wise-beyond-her-years dream lady, a humorous stoner buddy. Its sensitivities are extra advanced than these of, say, “American Pie,” however “Driver’s Ed” would in any other case match cozily alongside any of the films that “American Pie” impressed.
There are glimmers of originality in Moffett’s script, flashes of idiosyncratic element that recommend one thing richer, extra private that would have been had Farrelly not sanded down each edge he might. Farrelly takes broad swings at comedy, however few of his jokes land. No matter magic he used to have has gone; his instincts have pale, his timing is off.
The movie considerations Jeremy’s madcap journey to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the place his bitterly missed girlfriend, Samantha (Lilah Pate), is a freshman at UNC. Jeremy is fairly certain he’s going to lose Samantha to the temptations of school life if he doesn’t do one thing large. So he steals a driving instruction automotive and steals off into the Carolina backcountry, with three mismatched fellow college students in tow. What ensues is supposed to be a comically odyssean journey in pursuit of blind ardour. In actuality, a couple of minor issues occur after which the film ends precisely as we anticipate it to.
Not less than the corporate is welcome. Nivola is an enthralling, pure actor. He breathes one thing like actual life into Moffett’s bland characterization. He has ready help from Aidan Laprete as an affable slacker, Mohana Krishnan as a Sort A overachiever, and TikTok star Sophie Telegadis, doing very convincing Samaire Armstrong-on-“The O.C.” drag. The children have a energetic, winsome rapport and handle to register some specificity within the face of Farrelly and Moffett’s myriad drained clichés.
The adults don’t fare fairly so effectively. Molly Shannon does her noble finest with a Dangerous Principal position, whereas Kumail Nanjiani strains for something resembling humor as a loser substitute trainer. I’m certain each noticed some worth in working for one of many Farrelly brothers, even in 2025, however they perhaps ought to have held out for one thing higher.
“Driver’s Ed” is kindhearted and well-intentioned sufficient that one can’t outright hate it. However Farrelly critically tries that good will because the film lurches alongside. Its 98 minutes really feel like twice that. The anticipated tangents and vignettes of a highway film—on this case a meet-cute with a canine proprietor, a run in with a petty thief who has the whitest veneers I’ve ever seen, a fast journey behind a refrigerated truck filled with fur coats (yeah I don’t get it both)—are to a one fatally uninteresting and wholly pointless. “Driver’s Ed” has all of the arbitrary comedy of a nasty improv set, seeming to determine that randomness itself is humorous. There are a couple of laughs to be discovered within the movie, little moments of wit or weirdness, however the movie is in any other case a mirthless drag rescued solely by its vibrant leads. Possibly allow them to make the film subsequent time.
Grade: C
“Driver’s Ed” premiered on the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition. It’s at present in search of U.S. distribution.
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