This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

That was an excellent one.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

surreal story twists aside, which are enjoyable, and make the movie quite unique just for those, the highlight of the film is what seems like a 90 minute banter exchange between the 2 brothers.Likely Adam Scott's best role. Maybe one of his first? Not the personality he's known for.Joel Bissonette is much less known but the acting is good.Matt Bissonette's writing and originality in this film instantly means wanting to see all of his other films.The film is rewatchable if only to appreciate or criticize the plot choices.

It's Michael Brown (Adam Scott)'s 37th birthday. He gets a call from his brother Tobey for a ride. He gives a ride but Tobey won't tell him the reason. Michael keeps hinting at his birthday but Tobey is obviously clueless. They go on a long meandering journey through L.A. encountering sketchy characters and weird situations. Tobey comes clean that he's searching for his drug-addicted girlfriend Theresa.It's a lot of grumpy sarcastic indie banter. Adam Scott is usually good at it if he could have a comedian to bounce around the conversation. Joel Bissonnette is a perfectly good character actor but he provides no comedy. This has nothing truly funny. It's a lot of aimless complaining. It has a lot quirky without comedy. A transvestite jerking off in the car is sort of funny and Adam Scott tries his hardest. That's a small scene and it doesn't completely work anyways. It takes Michael a bit too long to challenge Tobey. This movie has lots of weird ideas but the comedy isn't there.

I thought the two brothers seemed to be more like gay lovers than brothers which destroyed the credibility of this sometimes affable sometimes sickening movie. Like a greeting card from the edge of what a human can tolerate in a day, it seems to deliver the goods and then backs away and starts doing cheap tricks, literally. Best avoid this ode to nowhere on a hot afternoon, it isn't that great to watch even as an art film. Sort of shades of a film Mat Damon did a few years ago about being lost in the desert, but this film has none of that other films drama. While the taxi driver character makes some valid points during the ride, the frame of the comments is to distracting for anything he says to have any real meaning. This film is to comedy/drama what Erasorhead is to action movies.

I picked Passenger Side as one of the 15 films i would watch during Cinequest this year as its the closest film festival to me, and they usually do a good job of picking both independent American films as well as noteworthy films of world cinema. Anyhow im glad they showed Bisonnette's "Passenger Ride". Although compared to Apatow, i think Bisonnette brings fresh comedy with a different style than Apatow. The writer/director does a good job setting up the mood using effective cinematography and a cool soundtrack. I liked the fact that they are basically driving across Los Angeles from one hot spot to another, the acting and writing linked up well as the director's brother was perfect for the role which seems to be somewhat biographical, and Adam Scott delivered one hell of a performance as the main character. The story is about Michael(Scott) giving his brother(Bisonette) rides around town to handle some things, the true reason kind of vague until later. Overall this was a film that was enjoyable, meaningful, and at times downright hilarious, hopefully it gets proper distribution.