Movie Review: ‘Driver X’ And Interview With Patrick Fabian

by James Lindorf

Writer and Director Henry Barrial teamed up, once again, with Producer Mark Stolaroff and Actor Patrick Fabian to bring you DriverX. Barrial’s film stars Fabian as Leonard, an unemployed husband and father desperate to make ends meet; while not sacrificing his sense of self and his old-school ways in a world run by technology and millennials. When no desirable jobs are presented, Leonard turns to the gig economy and becomes a driver for the popular rideshare service DriverX. Sundance Selects will be distributing DriverX, starting November 30th, in select theaters and on demand.

While Barrial filled his script with colorful characters for Leonard to interact with, the emotional center of the movie is how Leonard relates to those around him. How he raises his children, how he maintains a marriage with a wife who is tired of carrying the financial burden alone, and how he relates to a generation of people who he just doesn’t understand. Working for DriverX allows him to help out financially and gives him ample time to engage with people as much as 30 years younger than him. While a far reach from owning his own record store for 20+ years, driving gives Leonard that sense of ownership and control that he lost. However, driving also opens him up to a whole new world of potential pitfalls.

Compared to most Hollywood films, DriverX was made on a micro-budget of around $100,000, and 40% of that came from a successful Kickstarter campaign. Through the use of a limited crew, with the director’s personal car and home serving as the two central filming locations, they were able to spend the money on the most critical areas of the movie: the look and the music. The production element that felt the budget constraints the most had to be the casting department.

DriverX was based on Barrials’s own experience as a rideshare driver, giving all of the customers an air of authenticity. Unfortunately, with such a large cast, they weren’t always able to fill it out with the strongest actors. The line delivery of several of Leonard’s customers was very stiff and unnatural, possibly because the actors had to play a character very different from their own personality. The subpar acting of some of the customers was balanced out by Fabian and a great group of supporting actors that included Tanya Clarke, Desmin Borges, Oscar Nunez, Travis Schuldt, and Melissa Fumero.

DriverX is a look at one man on the wrong side of 50 and how he must adapt to survive in a younger person’s world. It is a true coming-of-(middle)-age story. It may not appeal to a vast audience but the people it does reach will be able to relate to someone here. Whether they see themselves as the people in Leonard’s backseat, just looking for a good time, or as Leonard himself, barely holding things together, will tell you more about their current comfort level in life than what generation they belong to.