"The Passenger" a tense, startlingly well-acted character piece

The Passenger (2023)

One part character study and another part road thriller, “The Passenger” is cruelly tense and disturbing. One might equate it to “The Hitcher” or a millennial “Falling Down” with a plus one, but director Carter Smith (“The Ruins”) and writer Jack Stanley (“Lou”) pave their own way with this startlingly well-acted small-town nightmare. 

21-year-old Randy Bradley, played by Johnny Berchtold, did something in second grade that held him back. He’s troubled and emotionally closed-off but has enough motivation to get up and go to his fast-food job. This work day just happens to be the day his co-worker, Benson (Kyle Gallner), loses it and shoots two bullying co-workers and their boss. Randy is a witness and now an accomplice when Benson drives him around, forcing Randy to stick up for himself as they make a few more stops. Benson may be a psychopath who thinks he’s in charge, but Randy will have to step up eventually.

Mainly a two-character piece that takes place all in one day, “The Passenger” is conversation-heavy but never once tedious. Directed as tautly as the skin on one’s face by Carter Smith, the film somehow toes the line enough to avoid being gratuitous or exploitative. Past the midway mark is the film’s centerpiece, a 14-year reunion with Randy’s former teacher, Miss Beard (Liza Weil), who wears an eyepatch. Weil, known best as Rory Gilmore’s extremely type-A friend Paris in “Gilmore Girls,” doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but she makes a lasting impression as Miss Beard, who has had time to heal and forgive after a life-altering incident with Randy. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com.

Grade: B

Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing "The Passenger" (99 min.) on demand and digital on August 4, 2023, followed by an MGM+ streaming release.