Passenger Side Review

This film is bloody lovely. Talk about making a virtue of your limitations: it’s a road movie set almost within one city, a romance where the love interest is off-screen and a moving family drama with no scenery-chewing showdown. What it has in spades is smart talk and tattered beauty, as a tainted, sarcastic writer (Adam Scott) is guilted into driving his addict brother (Joel Bissonnette) around Southern California. Are they chasing drugs, or a dream? An assortment of oddballs are encountered, but the surprise is that this curious, hilarious journey has a satisfying destination. The faded hope of LA is perfectly captured, as is a depth of sibling love and resentment, with excellent performances, big laughs and emotional truth. All this, and the best amputation joke ever.