Content Advisory: Substance abuse or alcoholism, Kidnapping
A cash-strapped ride-share driver gets more than he bargained for when he’s recruited to use a new start-up app in Self Driver. D (Nathanael Chadwick) was recently laid off from his office job, and he has been struggling to make end’s meet using a ride-share app called VRMR. Nic (Adam Goldhammer), one of D’s passengers, offers to enrol the driver in a new start-up app called Tonomo, promising that he can make four to five thousand a night. Desperate to pay his rent and other expenses, D reluctantly agrees, but soon realizes that there are certain caveats to using Tonomo.
Self Driver Synopsis
Self Driver is the feature directorial debut from writer/director Michael Pierro, co-produced by Kire Paputts (The Rainbow Kid, The Last Porno Show). Nathanael Chadwick stars as the film’s titular driver, simply known by the initial “D.” When D enrols in the Tonomo app, he quickly realizes that he must follow the app’s instructions in a timely manner or else get deductions from his fare. As “D” accepts higher paying fares, the instructions that the app gives him become more questionable, particularly when he picks up the very shady duo of Bro (Reece Presley) and Sis (Lauren Welchner).
My Thoughts on Self Driver
Coming across as a combination of Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver and the 1980s Global TV series Night Drive, Self Driver is a car-set thriller that imagines the streets of Toronto having a shady late-night underbelly that would rival 1970s New York City. The film acts as a commentary on how thankless, and low paying, a job that ride-sharing can be and the extremes someone would go if they are desperate enough. While I don’t want to give away too many specific plot details, the MVP of Self Driver turns out to be D’s googly-eye adorned air conditioner, of which a drug-tripping D comes to believe is communicating with him. Tack on a very unpredictable ending, and Self Driver is one tripped out ride through the streets of Toronto.