Nightride (2021) 

A drug dealer looking to get out of the business and open a body shop needs to do one last job to be allowed out. Of course, things don’t go as planned in this one-shot thriller. 

Written by Ben Conway and directed by Stephen Fingleton, Nightride is an exercise in filmmaking in that it’s one single shot for the whole runtime, with mostly just one man in a car taking and making calls while desperately trying to get to his goal. This could have easily led to a fairly boring experience, but it’s actually quite entertaining. The film is one that is easy to get into and the lead is one that can easily followed through his misadventures. Of course, there is a bit of a limitation to keeping the film to one single shot, no edits, and also to very few locations, including a car where most of the film takes place. This is a thriller where most of the tension comes from the lead’s emotions and his expression while he speaks on the phone. The film sets itself some limitations and does the most within and with them. 

As this is, most of the film rests on the shoulders of lead actor Moe Dunford who does quite well here. His work here is central and of utmost importance for the film and he carries everything basically by being not only central to everything, but also in just about every single scene on screen. This is a clear challenge that he relishes as his work here is spot on and quite strong. This is the kind of film that can be made or broken by the lead performance and he makes it. Most of the rest of the cast is seen very little to not at all with some of them being voices on the phone only. This means that they have a more limited time to make an impression and also have more limited functions to make that impression. Nonetheless, everyone here does quite well.  

The cinematography here is tight and done very consciously of what is going on and the film’s set-up. The work by David Bird works great here in most of the set-ups and in that it doesn’t get a cut until the end. Here, things were clearly very well planned and designed so that the camera could follow the lead and stay with him through everything. Of course, some of the sequences in the car itself are a bit too tight for this viewer, but allowances must be made for this exercise in filmmaking. 

Nightride is a tense film that starts off simply and adds onto the stress as things start going sideways. The set-up most being in a car with the lead speaking to people on the phone as well as the limitations created by doing a film in one single shot created an interesting challenge for the filmmakers and something that is quite entertaining and tense. A strong lead performance and good cinematography add to the concept and writing to make this a film more than worth checking out.