Drunk Bus – Life Lesson 101
Director: John Carlucci, Brandon LaGanke
Writer: Chris Molinaro (Screenplay)
Starring: Charlie Tahan, Pineapple Tangaroa, Kara Hayward, Zach Cherry, Dave Hill, Sarah Mezzanotte
Plot: A directionless, young campus bus driver and a punk rock, Samoan security guard named Pineapple form an unlikely kinship as they navigate the unpredictable late shift shit show known as the “drunk bus.” Together, they break out of their endless loop and into a world of uncertainty, excitement and incredibly poor decision-making.
Runtime: 1 Hour 41 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Drunk Bus starts as we meet Michael (Tahan) a college student who is suffering after a breakup, who drives the ‘Drunk Bus’ around campus, giving him a string of wild adventures on the nights, sometimes we will see the friendly students like Justin (Tonatuih) and Kat (Hayward), other times he must deal with the more aggressive drunks.
After an incident on the bus, Michael is given a bodyguard on the bus, a Samoan man named Pineapple (Tangaroa) who starts to give him life lessons, pushing him to move on to the next stage of his own life and to stand up for himself.
Thoughts on Drunk Bus
Characters & Performances – Michael is a college student that has taken a job as a drunk bus driver around campus and has been through a breakup, leaving him feeling depressed about his future, showing little sign of direction in his life. When he has an incident on the bus, he gets a bodyguard, who will give him life lessons on how to put his own life back on track. Charlie Tahan does bring us a character that is filled with the pain of young life. Pineapple is a Samoan who is hired to be the bodyguard on the bus, he has seen more of the world, showing and pushing Michael to take more risks in his life. Pineapple Tangaroa is great to watch, he will give us all important positive look in life, while hiding his own problems in life, bought to light in this character. We do get to meet a host of characters that are on the campus, each will have a different connection to Michael, which will show us the different stages other people are in their lives, each role is played well through the film.
Story – The story here follows a young man that has been struggling with his life after a breakup and starting to feel like his life is going nowhere, until he ends up meeting a bodyguard will look to help him find his direction once again in life. This is a story that is important as it will highlight just how difficult changing in life can be, finding your feet again and inspiration could well come from an unusual person that enters your life. The needing to find your place in life side of the story is very interesting, but we do fall short at understand just what any of these characters are truly still doing in college, especially with Michael, that doesn’t seem to be studying anything anymore. This is a story that will get the connection to learning about life through very well as everything looks to unfold.
Themes – Drunk Bus is a comedy that will put the drama in showing us how Michael needs to figure out what is next in his life, with most of the comedy coming from the string of colourful characters he ends up meeting along the way, on his daily routine. With large amounts of the scenes remaining on the bus, showing how these people keep returning to his life.
Blue Finch Film Releasing presents Drunk Bus on Digital Download 24 May
Drunk Bus is an entertaining life lesson based movie, that will shine a light on needing to change.
