Publication Date: 04-29-2026

The Passenger (2023) review

Dir. Carter Smith

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★½

Kyle Gallner has quickly become one of the most intriguing actors working today. It’s damn impressive to see him go from a primetime TV regular in Smallville and Veronica Mars to a complex and layered character actor in recent films like Dinner in America and Strange Darling. As much of a mainstay scream king as anyone over the last 15 years, Gallner can arrest you by his menacing looks, dazzle you with his rugged charisma, and make you legitimately fear what he will do next.

He does all that and more in Carter Smith’s The Passenger, a tantalizing thriller that plays like a more introspective and twisted version of the aforementioned Dinner in America. Since watching it, I’ve described it to friends as a “guardian devil” movie. Here’s the gist…

Randy Bradley (Johnny Berchtold) and Benson (Gallner) are coworkers at a fast food joint. The two barely interact, both the silent types yet polar opposite personalities. “Bradley,” as he’s referred, would rather eat a day-old cheeseburger than confront his antagonistic coworker amidst a heated exchange before they open for the day. After silently watching the entire interaction, Benson goes to his car, and returns with a shotgun. He kills all of his coworkers except Bradley, and after hiding the bodies in the walk-in freezer, Benson demands he hit the road with him.

Benson drives Bradley all over the Louisiana Bayou, initially stopping for food, then making a few other detours, both planned and unplanned, along the way. Benson doesn’t have a grandiose plan after committing cold-blooded murder, nor does he appear to have any plans to make Bradley his next victim (after all, he could’ve killed him in the restaurant). He’s moreso struck by the fact that he has control over Bradley simply because his timid coworker doesn’t put up any kind of fight. Benson doesn’t even worry about Bradley reaching for a phone to call the police, or even risk the prospect that he will run if left unattended. Through this whole odyssey, Bradley is passive.

Overtime, Jack Stanley’s script reveals itself not to be a shock-laden expose looking at the rot of American culture, but instead, a look at what decision-averse apathy can do to a person. Soon, this willing-hostage situation becomes a greater mission for Benson: put Bradley face-to-face with the people in his life he fears the most. Not bullies, per se, but those who he’s let club them into his own submission, through no fault of their own. Hence, Benson acts as a “guardian devil.” Through his own destructive impulses and vulgarian vocabulary, he metaphorically beats Bradley’s milquetoast passivity out of him. Stanley avoids making Benson an endearing or even likable character. There’s no monologue that makes you sympathize with anything he’s done, other than give Bradley the opportunity to save himself from whatever permanent rage and sadness could be manifesting inside of him.

Gallner’s performance is one of raw anger and fierce adrenaline. I’d love to know what/if anything he channels in order to get into characters like Benson or Simon from Dinner in America (I’ve seen it twice, I promise a review is coming soon). Because of his firecracker personality, it’s almost too easy to marginalize Berchtold’s frozen-faced, puppy-sad eye performance; it’s no less worth acknowledging. On top of looking world-weary with his sunken eyes, Berchtold’s emotive turn, when it occurs, is made deeply moving. Stanley and Smith’s movie examines a type of person not often put on film: a person who has given up to the point where life happens to them and a traumatic event has left them so risk-adverse that they are both too afraid to confront what (or whom) has ailed them and too meek to figure out a way to cope.

The ride on which The Passenger takes the viewer is thrilling. Cinematographer Lyn Moncrief works wonders in the framing department — setting the tone early with straight, sterilized shots in the fast food restaurant — and daringly never commits to a specific color palette. There’s a lot of gloomy grays, but every so often, the introduction of items such as Benson’s cat-puke-colored sweater, throw curveballs to your eyeballs. The most negative thing I can say about The Passenger? It’s on MGM+, the streaming service that prompts a confused face from someone who is already shelling out money for two or three others.

Starring: Johnny Berchtold, Kyle Gallner, and Liza Weil. Directed by: Carter Smith.