Director Bruce van Dusen takes the helm for this late bloomer coming-of-age story about two lifelong friends from New York City who embark on a three-day road tip to Montreal in hopes of meeting their favorite actor: Donald Sutherland. But this hapless duo hasn't left their problems behind just yet, because in order to achieve their lofty goal, these two pals will have to get a large cache of drugs to its intended drop spot in time, and contend with an eccentric keyboard clacker who only
communicates via instant messaging. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A road movie that runs out of gas almost immediately after it gets started, Backseat is the sort of quirky indie feature that impresses at festivals but feels wan when experienced under real cinematic conditions.
Culturally falling somewhere between Sideways and Dumb and Dumber, this low-rent road movie similarly rides on principles of audience identification, largely minus competent helming, thesping or scripting.
The flailing, protagonists of Backseat, while not exactly 40-year-old virgins, can have avoided that fate only by the tender mercies of women with low expectations.
Alexander's script considers context anathema, leaving us to wonder, among other puzzlers, why these two jerks are friends to begin with - and, perhaps, on what bad breakup or neglected childhood one may blame the film's dispiriting misanthropy.
The list of transgressions in Bruce Van Dusen's stalled road-trip flick is miles long: dialogue chocked with bumper-sticker platitudes, self-consciously quirky characters, gratuitous gunplay and a soundtrack top-heavy with achingly bad dorm-rock.
I loved this movie! It was very funny and entertaining! The two stars of the film, Josh Alexander and Robert Bogue, have wonderful timing with each other! I drove over three hours to see this movie and would do it again in a heartbeat!
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