Movie review: 'The Passenger' captures tense, fraught road trip
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The Passenger, coming to video-on-demand Friday, makes the most of confined, limited settings and a small cast. The thriller generates exponential thrills through the complex dynamics between its intimate cast of characters.
Benson (Kyle Gallner) stands up for co-worker Randy Bradley (Johnny Berchtold) at a fast-food restaurant when Chris (Matthew Laureano) bullies him. Then, Benson decides he's had enough and opens fire on the staff, sparing only Randy.
Benson brings Randy on a road trip, estimating they have hours before anyone returns to the restaurant to find evidence of his crime.
Randy is in quite a dilemma. Benson spared him, but he's also stuck. It's not like Benson could let a witness go, so Randy has to go along with the getaway without upsetting the volatile Benson to risk any further violence.
Benson takes a personal interest in Randy, realizing Randy's potential if he would only gain some confidence. Of course, this is a mighty twisted method of motivational speaking.
Gallner has charisma as Benson. He's charming enough that one can understand why an impressionable person might follow him, let alone someone in a vulnerable position having just witnessed a massacre.
Benson has a lot of beliefs about consumerism and society's followers. In an even more extreme example than Fight Club's Tyler Durden, it's clear Benson warped his beliefs far beyond the kernels of truth he may have perceived.
Benson is trying to solve toxic masculinity with more toxic masculinity. Chris is the kind of problem many people experience, but murdering Chris is an even more extreme problem.
Berchtold also conveys Randy's unsustainable peacekeeping nature. Randy just wants to avoid trouble, but enabling toxic people will only exacerbate the hassle.
Along the drive, Benson also pressures Randy to stand up to his mother on the phone, and reconcile with his ex-girlfriend (Lupe Leon) and a former teacher (Liza Weil). Those might be productive developments for Randy, but being forced to project personal growth to humor his captor creates another tricky dynamic.
The majority of The Passenger derives its tension from ideas. Just about everything Benson says is a threat, and there's still threatening subtext when Benson doesn't make his intentions explicit.
A good half the film is just the two characters in the car. When they do stop, they visit equally sparse locations.
The practical reason is that a small production can't afford to populate its malls and restaurants with a slew of extras. However, it works for the film as the desolate appearance of modern society fuels Randy's loneliness.
All of those one-on-one interactions, whether Benson and Randy or between Randy and others in his life, are well written, well acted and genuinely emotional. Randy opens up and forces others to open up, all while the specter of violence hangs over their heads, usually with the other party oblivious.
The bursts of violence are graphic. The shooting doesn't hold back, and The Passenger lives in the sloppy gore of dead bodies while Benson and Randy clean up the crime scene.
The Passenger makes most of minimal trappings. The psychological thriller explores the depths of passive and violent extremes, with shocking bursts of visceral violence.
The Passenger will come to MGM+ later this year.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
