‘Driver’s Ed’ Review: Bobby Farrelly’s Middle of the Roadtrip Teen Comedy is Stuck in Neutral [C] TIFF
Driver’s Ed is exactly what you would expect from a Bobby Farrelly teenage comedy — awkward, weird, unfunny, and shockingly tame despite all the swearing, all wrapped around a cozy-looking East Coast aesthetic. At some point, it doesn’t matter how good the intentions are or how sincere you can be when the jokes are constantly juvenile and contrived. Just because the writing is wrapped around a teenage coming-of-age drama does not automatically excuse you from writing in-depth material. The end result is a movie that’s occasionally cute but ultimately not funny enough and too forgettable. It lacks the insight of Lady Bird or The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and even if we were to compare vulgar humor, it doesn’t even come close to films like Booksmart or Bottoms.
Our lovestruck teenager is Jeremy (Sam Nivola, The White Lotus), who is treading through his senior year of high school. That is because the love of his life Samantha (Lilah Pate) is entering her freshman year of college. And though her college is only a 3-hour drive away, the separation is killing Jeremy. When he receives a drunk call from Samantha late one night, he begins to doubt where they stand on their relationship.
In a crazy impulsive choice, Jeremy steals the driver’s ed car from his school and embarks on a road trip to Samantha’s college. The problem is, well, he’s not alone. He technically has three hostages with him – loner classmate Evie (Sophie Telegadis), class valedictorian Aparna (Mohana Krishan), and school drug dealer/stoner Yoshi (Aidan Laprete). Well, they’re not hostages, per se. They technically decide to stay and go along with the ride.
And I suppose therein lies a big problem with Driver’s Ed: it’s full of character decisions that don’t make sense to who they are. Of course we understand that for the purposes of a road trip movie, these characters should be stuck together. Of course we understand that by the end of the movie, these characters will become best friends and think this is one life-changing trip. But that doesn’t excuse poor dialogue to explain or justify choices being made in the present scene. Every one of these teenagers says or does something remarkably stupid or out of left field. There’s no real consequences because they pretty much get away with everything they do. But most of all, it’s not funny because there’s no real conflict or dramatic irony to the act. Time and time again, Farrelly and screenwriter Thomas Moffett think that the crazy thing that’s happening is enough to be funny. It’s enough to put a comedy trailer together, I can tell you that.
Meanwhile, a group of adults are on the kids’ tails, consisting of the principal (Molly Shannon), their driver’s ed instructor (Kumail Nanjiani), and some cops along the way. Every single of them acts like they’re straight out of a cartoon or Disney Channel program. But oh wait, it can’t be for Disney Channel because everyone’s saying the F-word.
But Disney Channel is really not far off from how Driver’s Ed feels in terms of depth. Characters just spout motivational quotes pulled from Pinterest or Instagram, and often a scene just ends, like the filmmakers went “Yeah that’s good enough. Let’s move on.” It’s obvious that the best moments in the film all have to do with some form of tension. A character discovers something but hesitates to tell someone else about it. A character expresses head-to-head to someone on why what they’re doing is a bad idea. Though the film has an extremely surface-level view of long distance relationships, it touches on the brief idea of how blind love could make you forget to prioritize your own passions.
This brief idea is the one saving grace of Driver’s Ed. As soon as these teenagers get on the road and we learn that it’s because Jeremy really wants to salvage his relationship with Samantha, we already know how this is going to end. And yet when the time comes, the film handles it in a rather thoughtful way, and the performances are quite wonderful here. There’s a surprising amount of maturity in the resolution, one that left me in bewilderment as to why the rest of the movie didn’t have this kind of substance.
At its best, Driver’s Ed is harmless. The young actors are likable and have good moments of comradery together. It’s filled with good intentions and good moral lessons. But at the same time, it’s just so basic in its delivery, both in writing and in technical filmmaking. Most of all, it all comes down to the humor – it’s just not funny enough. I laughed one time. It makes for one boring road trip that will have you asking “Are we there yet?”
Grade: C
This review is from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.
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