The Passenger (Carter Smith, 2023)
It's frustrating when a talented actor like Kyle Gallner, who made me an instant fan of his after the superb Dinner in America (2021) - Dada Debaser's film of the year, winds up in minor bit part roles for mainstream, overrated trash like Scream 5 (2022) and Smile (2022). Thankfully, Gallner has had a chance to flex his acting talents in a few indie flicks this year, and one of which is this compelling psychological thriller by Carter Smith, better known for helming the enjoyably gory plant horror The Ruins (2008).
Following a short prelude scene where an elementary school teacher is bleeding from her eye, The Passenger (2023) fast forwards to a small town burger restaurant, one that looks equally as grotty as its stale burgers, where we're introduced to our film's protagonist Randy Bradley (Johnny Berchtold). Randy is a shy and introverted young employee and is often bullied by a fellow co-worker. Life doesn't seem to be much better at home, either. On this fateful day Kyle Gallner's Benson, also a staff member at the squalid restaurant, steps out into the car park and retrieves his shot gun from his car. The result is a blood bath with Randy forced to help clean up the gory mess, along with taking a road trip as Benson's hostage.
During the course of the off screen manhunt, Benson sees Randy as a bizarre social experiment in identifying his problems and goading him into rectifying them. The Passenger is first and formost a character study into two deeply troubled individuals. Both of which having endured past childhood traumas. Throughout the few hours they have together, the film successfully displays essential insights and compelling character developments for its two lead characters. Much of the film's success can also be attributed to Berchtold and Gallner's acting talents, but Smith film has a constant threat of spontaneous violence bubbling along throughout the its run time - obviously due to the burger restaurant massacre scene at the start of the film.
Always fun when a film manages to play with the viewer's predictions and The Passenger toys with the concept that Benson might be an imaginary character in Randy's head à la Fight Club (1999). The question is raised and answered surprisngly quickly and serves as an early twist to a played out revelation. Refeshing, that it outsmarts my second-guessing.
Immensely entertaining seeing Benson, a highly volatile psycho, act as life coach therapist to Randy. In all fairness, there's a method to his madness. He successfully manages to provide closure for many of Randy's problems, it's just done so in such an extremely unorthodox manner. This really made the film such an enjoyable experience.
How ironic is it that The Passenger, a Blumhouse Production feels like an A24 film, while Talk to Me (2023/2023), an A24 film, exudes obvious Blumhouse vibes? Not that I'm complaining or anything, as I'm hugely thankful that indie gems, regardless of their origin, are rising to the top in a year when bloated mainstream productions have either been flopbusters or products of manufactured hype like the insufferable Barbenheimer media blitzkrieg.
