Hit-and-Run Driver: A noir-ish nightmare that’s better than it has any right to be

Is it worth your time?

If you're into those old, gritty B-movies that feel like they were filmed in a damp basement, yeah, give this a spin. It’s tight, mean, and doesn’t waste time on sunshine. But if you need your protagonists to be redeemable or your pacing to be snappy and modern, you’ll probably find this thing a real drag. It’s a movie about a bad guy doing bad things, and it doesn't try to make you like him.

The whole thing kicks off with that crash. It’s brutal because of how quiet it is. No big orchestral swell, just the sound of a car hitting something and then the engine idling in the dark. It feels like a mistake you’d make if you were panicked and drunk, which I guess is the point. You can almost feel the sweat on the guy's forehead.

I found myself thinking about Gun Smoke halfway through, just because of how these old-school noirs handle tension. They don't have the budget for big set pieces, so they just make the room smaller and the shadows longer. It’s effective. The guy keeps trying to fix his car, and every time he touches the grill, he looks like he’s seeing a ghost. It’s not subtle, but it works.

Odd little moments

• The way he wipes his hands on his coat after the accident. He does it like three times. It’s super distracting.
• The streetlights in the background are always flickering. It’s like the set designer had a vendetta against steady electricity.
• There’s a scene in a diner where the coffee steam looks more dramatic than the dialogue.

It’s not as polished as something like Flight, obviously, but it has this weird, frantic energy. The main actor, Sam Flint, has this face that just screams 'I'm about to make another terrible decision.' You watch him and you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s exhausting to watch, but in a good way.

There are parts where the dialogue feels like it was written on the back of a napkin five minutes before shooting. Some of the lines are so clunky they actually made me laugh out loud. “I didn’t see them!” he says, and you just want to yell at the screen that he’s full of it. He’s lying to himself more than the cops.

The movie doesn't really have a big, explosive finale. It just kind of runs out of road. I don't know if that was a budget constraint or a choice, but I liked that it didn't try to be a grand moral lesson. It’s just a guy losing his mind in slow motion. 🚕💨

It’s not perfect. The lighting is all over the place, and some of the supporting cast are clearly just there to stand around and look suspicious. But for a quick, dirty crime flick? It gets the job done. Just don't go in expecting high art.