Rounding out the trilogy of 2000s nostalgia and “how did this appear in a film festival lineup?” of the TIFF 50th edition (the others being Charlie Harper and New Year’s Rev), Driver’s Ed sees Bobby Farrelly doing the same thing he has been doing for the past decade: trying to recapture the charm and magic of his earlier films, but with noticeably diminishing returns.
This time, he returns to the light teen comedy, leaning on a road trip structure and PG-13 humor. Working with a very small budget, Farrelly’s stated intention was to bring some undemanding levity to what he sees as a dark and gloomy cultural moment. Good intentions, but the result has neither the sharp jokes nor the heartfelt center needed for it to succeed.
The story follows four teenagers in a driver’s ed class who suddenly find themselves on a road trip when Jeremy (Sam Nivola) steals the school’s car to chase after his college girlfriend, who seems to be drifting away after moving on to university life. The other three tag along, while the principal (Molly Shannon) and their instructor Mr. Rivers (Kumail Nanjiani) do their best to stop the unlicensed trip before it brings trouble to the school.
The adult support is easily the film’s best aspect. Shannon and Nanjiani bring easy joy every time they are on screen, doing what they do well and have done well in previous films. The problem lies with the kids. The director struggles to balance his ideas of teens from his earlier comedies while trying to modernize the characters and, despite having some chemistry, they never feel like real people, more like personifications of single traits. It makes it hard to care about any of it, whether Jeremy gets his girlfriend back or whether the others figure out their thinly written arcs (and I mean both them and the script, as sometimes the arc is introduced at the very moment the character is resolving it). Nivola gives a one-note reprise of his White Lotus performance, and the other three do try to bring more personality, but do not have much to work with.
There is a faint trace of melancholy running through the film, which is welcome, but mostly the teens come across as empty and even frustratingly dim (at one point they do not know what a low-fuel warning means. Have they never been in a car before?). Lightweight, maybe too much so.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future.
Still courtesy of TIFF.