SELF DRIVER

3 stars

GrimmVision. Digital. 11th May

D (Nathanael Chadwick) is a rideshare driver for an Uber-like company. He is barely making ends meet. He sits in his car, which has seen better days, subsisting on takeaway meals. His landlord calls – which he ignores – and his wife phones, wanting a break, as she is at home with their baby. Add to this their internet isn’t working – as he hasn’t paid the bill. He is kind of desperate. With the sort of customers he has to drive around, things look bleak.

Then he has Nic (Adam Goldhammer) as a passenger – who tells him about the new app he is involved with. They need drivers like D and it pays way over the odds for this kind of work (potentially thousands). He is at first sceptical, but needs must, even if it all sounds a bit sketchy and has very restrictive rules – which must be followed. He must always do what the app tells him to do. No matter what. He must never talk to the customers. He can’t turn down any job or you are done for the night and if you quit in the middle of a job you lose all your money. Sounds perfectly legit!

Of course as he picks up various passengers he begins to realise he is being led down a dark path and if he doesn’t follow those rules to the letter he gets immediate deductions on his earnings…

Chadwick is fine in the central role and writer/director Michael Pierro manages to build a level of tension and maintain interest within the confines of the car, with strong use of close up shots. Ultimately however, it doesn’t add up to much and the ending is kind of odd. Apart from asking the question of how far you are willing to go when you are desperate, I am not sure it is actually saying much.

Steve Kirkham