Driver’s Ed

Directed by Bobby Farrelly, Driver’s Ed follows high schooler Jeremy (Sam Nivola) as he attempts to surprise his girlfriend at her college. Filmmaker Farrelly, armed with Thomas Moffett’s screenplay, has suffused Driver’s Ed with an exceedingly low-key feel that becomes more and more oppressive as time goes on, and it’s clear, certainly, that the picture fares best within its relatively agreeable (yet oddly laugh-free) opening stretch – with Nivola’s affable turn matched by his various costars. (Kumail Nanjiani and Molly Shannon, cast as a teacher and principal, respectively, are amusing within their lamentably small roles.) There’s little doubt, then, that Driver’s Ed slowly-but-surely wears out its welcome as it progresses into its meandering, lackluster midsection and second half, with the movie’s absence of big comedic set-pieces undoubtedly perpetuating the increasingly subpar vibe (ie these characters are ultimately not compelling enough to warrant this much uneventful time with them). By the time the fairly endless third-act house party rolls around, Driver’s Ed has cemented its place as a seriously misbegotten disaster that surely stands as Farrelly’s filmmaking nadir.

* out of ****