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 sort of prize, and he steadily pulls out just a little 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 massive feelings it doesn’t fairly perceive and zigging haphazardly in numerous instructions because it makes its option to the obvious of conclusions. Had been I his movie instructor, I’d give Jeremy a strong B on the task however counsel 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 sort of shockingly generic, a boilerplate teen road-trip film whose solely distinct character trait is having no character in any respect.
Had 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 woman, a humorous stoner pal. Its sensitivities are extra developed than these of, say, “American Pie,” however “Driver’s Ed” would in any other case match cozily alongside any of the flicks that “American Pie” impressed.
There are glimmers of originality in Moffett’s script, flashes of idiosyncratic element that counsel 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 light, his timing is off.
The movie issues 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 faculty life if he doesn’t do one thing massive. So he steals a driving instruction automobile 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 count on it to.
At the least the corporate is welcome. Nivola is a captivating, pure actor. He breathes one thing like actual life into Moffett’s bland characterization. He has in a position assist 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 youngsters 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 properly. Molly Shannon does her noble finest with a Dangerous Principal function, whereas Kumail Nanjiani strains for something resembling humor as a loser substitute instructor. 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 at the back of 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 shiny leads. Perhaps allow them to make the film subsequent time.
Grade: C
“Driver’s Ed” premiered on the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant. It’s at present in search of U.S. distribution.
Wish to keep updated on IndieWire’s movie opinions and demanding ideas? Subscribe right here to our newly launched publication, In Assessment by David Ehrlich, wherein our Chief Movie Critic and Head Evaluations Editor rounds up the most effective new opinions and streaming picks together with some unique musings — all solely obtainable to subscribers.