Critic Reviews

• Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

  Simple and smart, Canadian director Matt Bissonnette's Passenger Side is what's known in theatre circles as a two-hander, a two-person play in which everything depends on dialogue and performance.

• Peter Howell, Toronto Star

  Bissonnette achieves a hypnotic effect with Passenger Side. L.A. slides by in a daze, at once inviting and threatening. Michael and Tobey are just two Canadian dreamers in a city where dreams often die.

• Alistair Harkness, Scotsman

  Passenger Side works through its angsty family-drama-oriented premise with a sarky script, a healthy sense of self-awareness and an amusingly deadpan performance from Adam Scott.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  Here's one of those shuffling, slovenly American indies that can seem vain and inconsequential, or inviting and oddly profound, depending on the talent involved.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  Enjoyable, well directed indie road movie that's by turns laugh-out-loud funny and quietly moving, thanks to a sharply written, nicely observed script and pair of pitch-perfect performances from Adam Scott and Joel Bissonnette.

• Shaun Munro, What Culture

  Passenger Side is strictly a chamber piece. That chamber just happens to be the bustling, visually diverse landscape of Los Angeles.

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  The siblings are a bit like Sense and Sensibility's Elinor and Marianne: quaint but somehow universal.

• Cath Clarke, Guardian [UK]

  Funnier and more intelligent than there are any grounds to hope for: an entertaining, wry tour of LA's scuzzier sights.

• Adam Woodward, Little White Lies

  Bissonnette sidesteps the pitfalls of the indie road movie in some style.

• Nev Pierce, Empire Magazine

  A joy from start to finish. Bissonnette has crafted a unique, funny indie.

• Tom Dawson, Total Film

  There's nothing earth-shattering here, but the acting's credible and the wrap-up unexpected.

• Anton Bitel, Eye for Film

  If genre demands that this sort of story should finish in fraternal reconciliation and a never-ending horizon of happiness, Bissonnette prefers to brake and reverse - and the result, though surprising, feels all the more true to life.

• Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com

  It?s nothing ingenious, but those in the mood for a touch of visual poetry to their familial torment might find plenty to enjoy about this modest drama.

• Jim Slotek, Jam! Movies

  An intriguing and funny ride that doesn't hit you over the head trying to be one thing or another.

Read all 14 critic reviews