{"id":685,"date":"2018-12-02T00:19:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T00:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/?p=685"},"modified":"2018-12-03T00:22:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T00:22:59","slug":"reviews-drama-driverx-taps-the-street-level-grind-of-ride-share-services-plus-other-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/reviews-drama-driverx-taps-the-street-level-grind-of-ride-share-services-plus-other-films\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews: Drama ‘DriverX’ taps the street-level grind of ride-share services"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong>
\nBy NOEL MURRAY<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018Driver X\u2019<\/h1>\n

Just like in real life, more and more movies and TV characters have been getting jobs with ride-share services. Writer-director Henry Barrial\u2019s \u201cDriverX\u201d is one of the few films that doesn\u2019t just use the gig as a plot-device. Drawn from the filmmaker\u2019s own experiences, \u201cDriverX\u201d is a collection of hit-and-miss anecdotes, organized around the idea of what \u201cwork\u201d means in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Veteran character actor Patrick Fabian (\u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d) stars as Leonard Moore, a 50ish Angeleno who once ran a successful independent record store. Unable to find a new career and facing the mounting debt that comes with a middle-class suburban California lifestyle, he signs on with an Uber\/Lyft-type company called \u201cX\u201d and hits the streets.<\/p>\n

Barrial follows a few story lines throughout \u201cDriverX.\u201d Leonard\u2019s having some troubles in his marriage, exacerbated by economic stress and sexual frustration. He also strikes up a friendship with a steady customer named Tom (Desmin Borges), a nice guy who becomes a confidant.<\/p>\n

Mostly though, the film strings together vignettes, relying on Fabian\u2019s strong performance to hold the audience\u2019s attention through scene after scene of Leonard ferrying around drunk young people, whose lives and desires he can barely understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cDriverX\u201d can be a little reductive when it comes to the generation gap. It\u2019s even iffier when it comes to how Leonard tends to see women: as strange, frustrating alien creatures, who control him with their inscrutable whims and ineffable beauty.<\/p>\n

But the acting throughout is excellent; and it helps that Barrial isn\u2019t playing Leonard\u2019s predicament for cheap laughs or amped-up drama. Instead, he\u2019s documenting what it\u2019s like these days, to try and find some meaning in life while scrounging all night long, terrified to miss whatever meager scraps are being tossed.<\/p>\n

www.LATimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By NOEL MURRAY<\/p>\n

\u2018Driver X\u2019
\nJust like in real life, more and more movies and TV characters have been getting jobs with ride-share services. Writer-director Henry Barrial\u2019s \u201cDriverX\u201d is one of the few films that doesn\u2019t just use the gig as a plot-device. Drawn from the filmmaker\u2019s own experiences, \u201cDriverX\u201d is a collection of hit-and-miss anecdotes, organized…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":689,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickfabian.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}