TIFF Review: “The Stunt Driver”

The Stunt Driver (Michael Dowse, 2026) 2 out of 5 stars

Ken Carter, aka “The Mad Canadian,” was a stunt driver who performed many feats of automobile derring-do, much like his American contemporary, the better-known Evel Knievel. In 1976, two years after Knievel attempted a rocket-powered jump across Idaho’s Snake River (not quite making it), Carter had the idea to top his rival by jumping one mile over the St. Lawrence River. Like the improbable exploit at its center, writer/director Michael Dowse’s latest film, The Stunt Driver, starts out with plenty of promise and then falls apart. It’s a shame, for the initial half is good fun.

Jay Baruchel (Random Acts of Violence) stars as Carter, and is almost unrecognizable from previous roles, so committed is he to the part. Full of simultaneous macho bluster and deep insecurities, he makes wild proclamations about what he intends to do, convincing just enough folks to back him. The first part of the narrative is very much an absurd comedy, no one quite believing that Carter can pull off his proposed jump yet some going along anyway.

Among those Carter persuades is car designer Dick Keller (Ed Helms, Together Together), one of the men responsible for building the Blue Flame vehicle that broke the land speed record in 1970. Despite his skepticism, he signs on to make the rocket car. But he insists that he have final say on whether the stunt can proceed or not. Too bad no one ultimately listens to him.

Showing up to film the preparations and, hopefully, the jump, is a documentary crew led by Robert Fortier (Joe Cobden, Little Lorraine), who in real life produced the 1981 The Devil at Your Heels, footage from which appears during this movie’s end credits. It’s a nice meta-inclusion in the story, adding to the farcical atmosphere while such tone lasts. Like everything else in The Stunt Driver, however, this trick eventually also loses steam.

Showing up as Knievel and adding his own brand of manic energy to the mix is Ben Foster (Medieval). Laurence Leboeuf (Two Women) plays Carter’s wife, Gloria, and though she is good the role is little more than the typical supportive spouse who later grows tired of being so supportive. Beyond that, she has little agency of her own.

Beyond the gradual descent into self-seriousness as the St. Lawrence caper drags on (and on), The Stunt Driver also proves very confusing in its final moments. Carter died in 1983 doing a different stunt, but I’m still unclear on the details. What I am sure about is that this movie made me laugh quite a lot in the beginning and then left me cold at the end, with the sentiment to which it shifts feeling decidedly unearned. There’s nothing wrong with mixing moods, but such a blend has to work, and it doesn’t here.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Chris Reed is the editor of Film Festival Today. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.