one for the road movie review

‘One for the Road’ Takes Us on an Evocative, Soapy Farewell Road Trip

Pure, five-time-distilled heartache overshadows dynamic direction and a banger soundtrack.

Published February 1, 2021 Movies , Reviews By Luke Hicks Disclaimer When you purchase through affiliate links on our site, we may earn a commission.

Wong Kar-wai doesn’t produce films often, but when he does, they’re not like his own. For what it’s worth, One for the Road isn’t like a Baz Poonpiriya movie either, but with only two films under his belt coming in – a chamber horror and an academic crime caper – he has yet to establish a particular style, and it appears he’s exploring what that style may be. Regardless, after three completely different projects, it’s safe to say Poonpiriya doesn’t want to be boxed in as a specific kind of filmmaker, much like his iconic producer.

One for the Road follows Boss ( Thanapob Leeratanakajorn ) and Aood ( Ice Natara ), best friends who had a falling out years prior in New York City, after which Aood moved back to their home country, Thailand. Boss remained in New York, living it up as a ladies’ man in his penthouse apartment funded by his loaded family back home and crafting exquisite drinks for high-paying customers in dimly lit speakeasy lounges. Together, the two friends shared a dream of opening a sleek bar and slinging artisan cocktails in the Big Apple, but, as the many flashbacks inform, problems arose, and when I say problems, I mean girlfriends. Yes, like Scott Pilgrim .

When our leads reconnect in the opening act, Poonpiriya has already begun pulling heartstrings. Aood beckons Boss to return home for a final, literal drive down memory lane to revisit his four ex-girlfriends before cancer overtakes his body and the opportunity vanishes. Obliterated by the news, Boss hops on a plane, and next thing we know, we’re zipping through the gorgeous green country in a crème-colored vintage Beamer that will satisfy your most luxurious mid-century modern appetite.

One for the Road squeezes several subgenres into its unwieldy (for a Sundance movie, at least) runtime, the decade-spanning narrative leaving room for all kinds of expression in the immense ground it covers. At the outset, it oscillates between buddy comedy, meditative drama, and road trip adventure. Eventually, it works in metaphorical fantasy violence, tender romance, and family upheaval. But ultimately, One for the Road ends up being more soap opera than anything, and that happens to be its major flaw.

As the past is colored in through flashbacks, Boss and Aood’s joint journey adopts a corny, sour flavor that begins to taste more manipulative than earned, a la the poverty porn of Dan Fogelman, though Poonpiriya is savvy enough to keep viewers from This Is Us levels of trauma-building. However, it seems he didn’t quite know how to end his story and, as a result, he let cliché take the reins, adding on an entirely unaddressed act halfway through that becomes the long stretch (the entire second half) to the end when it would be better off as the finish line.

The camera movement throughout is incredibly dynamic. Cinematographer Phaklao Jiraungkoonkun pulls a new trick every few minutes in his visually stunning style. The Western-pop-laden soundtrack gives kinetic energy to the pace, and the smoky, elegant jazz music that the movie always settles back into transitions viewers seamlessly in and out of different moods, even if those moods end up feeling forced at times.

The two friends bounce from one Aood ex to the next – a dancer, actor, mother (not his), and mystery, respectively – and as their stories unfold it becomes clear that the girlfriends were rarely the guys’ problem; rather, Aood and/or Boss were the girlfriends’ problem. But this isn’t a film about pointing fingers. Poonpiriya means to explore the vast expanse of possibilities that encapsulate the act of saying goodbye for good. From the torture of silence to the contentment of a last dance to the anticipated unveiling of long-held lies, there is no easy way to say goodbye. Herein lies the film’s greatest strength: the yearning it creates, finds, or resurrects in you for connection and reconciliation.

There is a slew of delicious cocktail-making montages that range from sensual to emotional to comical, but all of them will leave you desperately wanting not necessarily the drink so much as the night out with friends or lovers that lands it in front of you and makes the cocktail worth drinking. As Boss says, “A bar is not a place. It’s a bartender.” Poonpiriya uses the alchemical nature of cocktails to draw out our own memories over drinks and suggest another recipe for repair: humility, apology, patience.

So much of One for the Road will leave a pandemic-stricken world in heartache, fawning even for the heat of in-person conflict with friends and family who have had to remain at a distance. Poonpiriya distills that heartache five times into the purest, most intoxicating pain one can imbibe from the comfort of their couch, be it the pain of bastardized friendships or lovelorn loss. It’s not hard to recognize ourselves in the lies, the complexity of relationships, and the tendencies to dwell on the past. But, while well-worth the watch, it does become hard to stomach it after two hours and sixteen minutes.

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‘One for the Road’ Review: Wong Kar-wai Produces Overwrought Thai Melodrama

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One of the precious few movies that Wong Kar-wai has produced for another filmmaker in the last 20 years (though unsurprisingly, not the first to concern a handsome bartender who can’t escape the throbbing hangover of his greatest heartbreak), Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya’s “One for the Road” is a syrupy glob of romantic melodrama that has as much in common with the likes of “The Bucket List” and “Elizabethtown” as it does with the lovelorn poetry of “2046” or “Chungking Express.” Despite his art-house cachet, Wong’s producing credits have always tended to fall on the commercial side of the fence.

Anyone familiar with Poonpiriya’s “Bad Genius” won’t be surprised to find that the director’s follow-up fizzes with the same pop sensibility that made his high-school heist thriller the most internationally successful Thai film ever, and afforded him this chance to make something more personal. To his credit, it does feel personal, even (or perhaps especially ) as it speeds over a few potholes of forced schmaltz. For all of the feeling in this broadly enjoyable journey, “One for the Road” is most effective for its simple pleasures — smooth needle drops, nostalgia-saturated cinematography, and tear-jerking reveals engineered with the precision of a luxury sedan — but it often stalls out when it tries to switch gears and steer through rougher emotional terrain.

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“One for the Road” is not in a hurry to get where it’s going with a 138-minute runtime, but Poonpiriya kicks things off with a flurry of shots that feel like the cinematic equivalent of pre-gaming for a long night. The time-hopping, trans-Pacific saga begins in present-day Manhattan, where hunky Thai ex-pat Boss (Tor Thanapob) works as a high-end mixologist at the swanky bar he opened with someone else’s money. The music is jazzy, the women are plentiful, and the camera is attached to the edge of Boss’ cocktail shaker to make it appear that the whole world is moving in sync with him. But a phone call in the middle of the night unmoors him: It’s Boss’ old friend Aood (Ice Natara), and he’s dying of the same leukemia that killed his radio DJ father. Would Boss mind closing the bar for a month and flying back to Thailand to help Aood “return some stuff” before he dies?

“One for the Road” is a few minutes old when its peevish hero is in the air; by the time the strange friction we sense between Boss and Aood is disentangled, the film will only have a few minutes left. There’s a palpable distance between them — more serrated than polite — and yet Boss still agrees to drop everything and fly halfway across the planet without asking why. He finds Aood bald, sickly, and even skinnier than he remembers, and Boss learns that Aood wants to go on a road trip to make things right with an ex-girlfriend while he still can. And when Aood said “ex-girlfriend,” what he really meant was “ex-girlfriends.”

Strap in for a bumpy and episodic ride that swerves between past and present as Boss chauffeurs his ailing pal from one old love to another, and from soapy drama to slapstick comedy depending on how things went south. Soundtracked by cassette tapes of Aood’s late father’s radio show (a Cameron Crowe-approved mix of classic rock with a few tantalizing snippets of local favorites), these breezy scenes allow Poonpiriya to get a lot of mileage out of his penchant for glossy pop cinema. One particularly fun encounter finds Boss interrupting a movie shoot so Aood can make amends with the lead actress (a rising starlet costumed in a wedding dress), and the punchline delivers a rare belly laugh in a film more interested in earning a few wistful smiles.

These self-contained episodes contribute to an accumulating sense of closure: Aood deletes each ex from his phone when he’s done with them. “One for the Road” thrives in those sepia-toned moments when a person realizes they’re probably seeing someone for the last time, and in the feeling of peace (or panic) that can linger in their wake. These characters might travel over pavement, but their story is carried by the current of water flowing under a bridge.

It’s easy to let it wash over you when Poonpiriya’s film surrenders to that kind of emotional abstraction, soaks up Phaklao Jiraungkoonkun’s lush and sun-dappled cinematography, and settles into the question of whether Aood is healing old wounds or pouring salt in them. This sensual mode also allows Poonpiriya to celebrate the influence of its producer, basking in metaphors of romance and the romance of metaphors. (The director indulges in a little step-print seduction when Wong’s credit appears on screen, a cute homage that also anticipates the superficial ways that Poonpiriya borrows from the master’s bag of tricks.)

Some things that “One for the Road” puts together decidedly don’t work, specifically Aood’s present and Boss’ past. The film’s final 45 minutes jump back in time and shine new light on their shared history, but each new detail is less believable than the last. The bittersweet payoff at the end of the road is satisfying enough to stir up some basic emotion, but it’s also more soapy than sensitive. There’s more plot here than the film can accommodate, and while time may be on Boss’ side (as the song goes, over and over again), “One for the Road” runs out of gas before it’s finished with him.

“One for the Road” premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution,

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The overloaded Thai equivalent of one of those YA weepies where terminally ill teens scramble to fulfill their bucket lists before expiring at a young age, all-the-feels buddy movie “One for the Road” is determined to leave audiences both shaken and stirred. Your mileage may vary as director Baz Poonpiriya (“Bad Genius”) packs this concoction with a lifetime’s worth of romances, breakups and reconciliations; a cancer diagnosis; a cheek-tweakingly adorable kid; all sorts of overdue apologies; several family surprises; and one of those scenes where the music swells as someone’s ashes are scattered to the winds.

Seeing so many emotions squeezed into 137 minutes surely explains why Sundance Film Festival programmers picked this broadly appealing international selection as one of half a dozen films to screen on opening night of the 2021 virtual edition. Well, that and the fact it was produced by Wong Kar Wai, whose blessing gives this slick but soap-operatic melodrama added cachet with art-house crowds — assuming that art houses reopen in time to host its release. Audience reactions will depend on their threshold for skillful manipulation, eased considerably by an unexpected maturity that surfaces in the film’s twist-filled second half.

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Poonpiriya, who is reportedly collaborating with “Crazy Rich Asians” director John M. Chu on a Thai cave rescue project for Netflix, clearly knows how to push an audience’s buttons, to the extent that signing on for “One for the Road” is like stepping aboard a high-rise elevator knowing it will be making stops at all 30 floors. Early on, Poonpiriya appears to be working overtime to get a reaction, opening with teary-eyed 30-something Aood (Ice Natara) sitting behind the wheel of a vintage BMW, contacting all the names saved in his phone to tell them he has leukemia, then deleting each entry after he calls.

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But for old friend Boss (Tor Thanapob), he has a special request: Aood calls the New York-based bartender, who’s spent the past decade seducing practically every pretty woman who crosses his path, and asks him to fly back to Thailand for a road trip. Aood aims to visit his ex-girlfriends in person, and he wants Boss to accompany him. Boss owes him a favor (the reason is one of the film’s many twists) and reluctantly agrees, tagging along for a series of too-cute (and frankly, somewhat confusing) reunions. Poonpiriya and editor Chonlasit Upanigkit cut between these meetings and memories of the couple’s relationship, teasing the multiple timelines that will play out over the rest of the film while hiding a key piece of information: how and when these two friends met.

First, there’s Alice (Ploi Horwang), a free-spirited dancer with bright red hair; followed by Noona (Aokbab Chutimon), an aspiring actor who made it big after they broke up; and finally, Roong (Noon Siraphun), a photographer Aood met while living in New York. Poonpiriya engineers these meetings to trigger strong feelings in the audience, effectively juxtaposing the excitement of a budding relationship with the pain of knowing how it ended.

To his credit, the director (who co-wrote the script with Nottapon Boonprakob and Puangsoi Aksornsawang) refrains from having Aood tell his exes that he’s dying. Instead, Aood uses each reunion to return some special object the girlfriend left behind. It’s a clever strategy on Poonpiriya’s part, as these items become charged with a kind of sentimental energy, which deepens when the film sees fit to fill in their individual backstories.

Like the Boss character, who dreams of opening a bar, the director positions himself as a master mixologist, serving up drinks so powerful that they spark deep emotional reactions in whoever’s sipping. At one point, Boss pours photogenic craft cocktails named after these encounters. Later, the last drink, Chemotherapy, tastes bitter, we’re told.

But Poonpiriya doesn’t stop there, playing DJ as well via a parallel soundtrack of (mostly English-language) pop songs aired by Aood’s radio-host dad, embodied by popular Thai actor, musician and “Bad Genius” star Thaneth Warakulnukroh, whose casting adds an emotional kick for local audiences (the equivalent of Tom Waits or Willie Nelson making a cameo). It’s not until Aood has listened to his final broadcast, featuring Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son,” that he can delete “Dad” from his dwindling contacts list.

None of this has been especially subtle, although it’s here, at roughly the midway point, that the movie pivots into more nuanced territory, confirming what most audiences will have anticipated all along: that it’s no coincidence Aood picked Boss to be his wingman on the journey. The movie has a sly way of setting up our expectations, only to subvert them later, and from this point on, the reversals come with shocking rapidity. In fact, Poonpiriya so frequently undermines the movie’s premises that it would be fair to wonder whether Aood even has cancer at all (the final scenes don’t exactly dispel this question).

But it’s the introduction of a character named Prim, played by Violette Wautier, that transforms “One for the Road” from being a second-rate “50/50” (for those who remember the 2011 buddy movie in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt was determined to beat cancer) into something entirely its own. Once Prim appears, it stops mattering whether leukemia was merely a convenient plot device, since the self-absorbed Boss finally becomes a character we can care about.

To say much more might spoil the surprise, although it’s worth crediting Wautier with making Prim more than just another pixie-dream-girl fantasy. The character has dreams of her own, and in the end, it’s seeing those fulfilled that resonates more than the state of these dudes’ bucket lists.

Reviewed online, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, Jan. 25, 2021. (In Sundance Film Festival — World Dramatic Competition.) Running time: 137 MIN.

Production: (China, Hong Kong, Thailand) A Block 2 Distribution, Jet Tone Contents Inc. presentation of Jet Tone Films, Houseton production. Producers: Wong Kar Wai, Jacky Pang Yee Wah, Alice Chan, Amorn Nilthep. Executive producer: Chan Ye Cheng. Co-producers: Praew Poonpiriya, Warunthorn Charnjitkusol.
Crew: Director: Baz Poonpiriya. Screenplay: Baz Poonpiriya, Nottapon Boonprakob, Puangsoi Aksornsawang. Camera: Phaklao Jiraungkoonkun. Editor: Chonlasit Upanigkit. Music: Vichaya Vatanasapt.
With: Tor Thanapob, Ice Natara, Violette Wautier, Aokbab Chutimon, Ploi Horwang, Noon Siraphun, Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Rhatha Phongam. (Thai, English dialogue)

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'One For The Road' Review: 'Bad Genius' Director Steers A Stylish Road Trip Dramedy [Sundance 2021]

Thai director Nattawut Poonpiriya 's impossibly stylish high school heist thriller Bad Genius was one of the best hidden gems to emerge from the Southeast Asian region over the past few years, and seemed to signal a bright new filmmaker in the arena who could rival Edgar Wright in breakneck editing and crazy camera acrobatics. That thought occurred to me the first few minutes into Poonpiriya's latest equally stylish film, One for the Road , but gradually faded as the road trip dramedy took a few too many detours and soapy left turns.

A wistful road trip movie that follows a pair of old, estranged friends who reconnect after many years, One for the Road at first seems to radiate cool : it opens on a sweaty Bangkok summer night as a young man listens to a rock 'n' roll radio DJ from within a white vintage car, rifling through cassette tapes titled "Midnight Riders." Nostalgia seems to seep from every frame of One for the Road , even as it suddenly travels halfway across the world to New York City, where a bartender is making drinks for a rowdy crowd, the camera dipping and twirling alongside his hands in a dizzying fashion. The bartender is named "Boss" ( Thanapob Leeratanakajorn ), a wealthy heir who spends his nights running his high-end bar, and spends his days falling into bed with the ladies who patronize that bar. But while mid-tryst, he gets a phone call from Aood ( Natara Nopparatayapon ), his former roommate and working class friend who had returned to Thailand after a bad falling out. Aood has cancer, he learns. And he needs a favor.

Boss quickly packs a bag and returns to Thailand to grant Aood his favor: to drive Aood cross-country in a farewell tour to his exes, which doubles as a trip down memory lane for the both of them. A structure is in place — Aood has a cassette tape for each ex, and an item to return to each girl that will inevitably bring up old memories — and a catharsis of some kind is in order. We'll unearth the reason behind Boss and Aood's falling out, as more memories of their life together in New York are shown with each reunion. We'll find out why Boss is such a scumbag who sleeps around and dismisses his friend, even as he goes above and beyond to show that he does care for Aood. And Poonpiriya's signature stylish direction rises to the occasion, going heavy on the shallow focus and warm hues, and letting the flashbacks unfold in tandem with the reunions, playing out like a melancholic dance across time.

The first ex-girlfriend they meet is Alice ( Ploi Horwang ), a dancer who is introduced in a flash of red hair and a red, twirling dress — a bright contrast to the drab dance teacher working at a strip mall who at first refuses to see Aood. But she is eventually persuaded by Boss, and the pair reunite at a dance hall, Aood remarking at how much she's changed. "There's no need to be stylish in this town, everything's slow here," she responds, and as if taking a cue from her, the rest of the movie slows down too. Well, kind of.

Poonopiriya, itching for excitement and restless to flex his directing chops, can't seem to resist throwing in another few breakneck sequences, whether in a drinking montage that ends in a health scare, or an absurd sequence in which Aood's actress ex-girlfriend ( Bad Genius star Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying ) fires a bullet during a film shoot that (metaphorically) hits Aood right in the heart after they have a painful reunion. Poonopiriya, who co-writes the script with Puangsoi Aksornsawang and Nottapon Boonprakob, sprinkles in random moments of broad humor that sit uncomfortably with the film's wistful nature, and seems almost in defiance of the more mature stylings that are associated with the film's producer Wong Kar Wai. I wouldn't mind these comedic moments if they worked, and if they didn't disappear about halfway through the film, where One for the Road takes a sharp turn for the sentimental.

After having failed to set things right with his third ex ( Noon Siraphun ), a photographer now married with a daughter, Aood has one final cassette tape for Boss. The film then launches into its lengthiest flashback yet, into Boss' lonely childhood living in the luxurious hotel of his mother's husband, whose only human connection was the friendly bartender Prim ( Violette Wautier ) with whom he soon falls in love. The two of them move to New York City, where their lives intertwine with Aood in a serendipitous twist of fate.

This about-face that takes place halfway through this film is jarring, to say the least. The film has suddenly transformed from a nostalgic road trip dramedy to a star-crossed romance, the two parts operating almost like two completely different movies, Poonpiriya unable to reconcile his stylistic flourishes with the sentimental nature of the story. It's the marked style difference that makes them feel so separate, Poonpiriya apparently having worn out all his cool tricks in the first half, is resigned to making a straightforward soap opera in the second, and the film feels imbalanced for it. Poonpiriya showed such airtight perfection with Bad Genius that a meandering film like One for the Road will no doubt feel a little bulkier. But Poonpiriya's third feature undoubtedly feels like a filmmaker at a crossroads: a formerly hip, young thing who is trying to prove himself a serious director, but coming up short.

/Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

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This is a deep-dish movie-movie, one that’s constantly trading in matters of love desired, won and lost, of regret, of shimmers of hope. It’s a road movie of streets and highways, catchy pop music and emotions worthy of a symphony orchestra. Not so many films these days stir the pot with so many ingredients, but this one simmers throughout with percolating feelings that aren’t all that common in films these days.

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While the film does a tricky balancing act all the way through of juggling disparate moments in time and space, the dramatic framework is quickly set with the news that thirtyish Aood (Ice Natara) has been diagnosed with leukemia. He calls his former best friend Boss (Tor Thanapob) to come to Thailand from New York to do him a favor. Although the two have been estranged and out of touch for some time, Boss doesn’t hesitate for a second and, upon arrival, is informed that his pal wants him to drive on a road trip through the country from north to south so that he can make amends with numerous women before he departs this world.

One can easily imagine such a set-up done Hollywood-style done years ago, with Neil Simon writing and Gene Saks directing Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as a bickering old twosome resurrecting old disputes and settling old scores as they visit old ladies they once lusted after or were married to. It scarcely needs to be said that this new film could scarcely be more different. When the dashingly handsome Boss arrives, he’s struck by Aood’s bald scalp and frail physique; the young man is done with chemo, his prospects implicitly grim. With a very eclectic music collection as backdrop, they hit the road.

The first stop is a film shoot wedding, where a former ladyfriend of Aood (pronounced “owed”) is playing the bride. She wants absolutely nothing to do with him. By contrast, in Chiang Mai, he has a sweet encounter with a former flame and her little daughter. And so it goes down the map, as the past begins to become filled in and the drama’s attention decisively shifts to Boss and his history.

The man is not ill-named. He’s so handsome and unneedy that he gets any woman he wants, and as a popular barman his opportunities are limitless. Having more trouble securing a footing in Gotham is Prim (Violet Wautier), a vibrant and game young lady from Thailand trying to give Gotham a go. It’s difficult at first, but she proves herself a cocktail whiz nonpareil and captures Boss’ attention as no other woman ever has.

The New York section of the film is jammed with scenes of a thriving downtown nightlife of a kind absent from modern life for nearly a year. It also gives Wautier, in particular, a real chance to shine. The camera loves her and her vibrant personality and quicksilver mood changeability suggest a lively career in the making. Cinematographer Phaklao Jiraungkoonkun makes the most of the abundant visual opportunities on locations on both sides of the world, and the lush visuals owe a certain debut to the influence of the film’s producer.

But an equal factor in the film’s effectiveness stems from the acutely judged editing. The film jumps around a good deal, in both locations and time periods, and while the chronology may not always be entirely clear, the emotional through-lines remain strongly felt, allowing for unbroken attachment and concern for the central characters, all of whom eventually achieve real dimensionality.

From the beginning, Aood’s medical condition drapes the film in sense of life’s evanescence, the potential for anything to be here one day and gone the next. Despite or because of this, One for the Road remains vitally alive at every moment, alert to every emotion, desire, opportunity and vicissitude churned up by the characters’ journeys. It’s kind of a knock-out.

One for the Road is playing in the World Drama section of the Sundance Film Festival . World premiere. Running time: 136 minutes. Sales agent: CAA.

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‘One for the Road’ Review: Wong Kar-wai Produces Overwrought Thai Melodrama

One of the precious few movies that Wong Kar-wai has produced for another filmmaker in the last 20 years (though unsurprisingly, not the first to concern a handsome bartender who can’t escape the throbbing hangover of his greatest heartbreak), Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya’s “ One for the Road ” is a syrupy glob of romantic melodrama that has as much in common with the likes of “The Bucket List” and “Elizabethtown” as it does with the lovelorn poetry of “2046” or “Chungking Express.” Despite his art-house cachet, Wong’s producing credits have always tended to fall on the commercial side of the fence.

One For The Road Review

02 Jul 2004

One For The Road

If Shane Meadows had madeGlengarry Glen Ross, it might have come out a little something like this. Similar to David Mamet's acclaimed play (filmed by James Foley), writer-director Chris Cooke's feature debut takes a hard look at the lives of men, salesmen for the most part, at the point they're going rapidly down the tubes.

It's a premise that makes for potentially bleak viewing, but Cooke's film, like those of his Nottingham neighbour Meadows, is shot through with vivid regional characterisations, familiar as they may be, from which much humour is derived thanks to a reliable cast of recognisable TV faces.

The story centres on a group of convicted drink drivers who meet at a rehabilitation course where three of them scheme to rip off a rich fourth.

One for the Road (2003)

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One for the road.

Directed by Chris Cooke

One for the Road follows Jimmy, Paul, Richard and Mark who meet on a rehabilitation course for drink drivers. Jimmy is young, ambitious and desperate to sell his late father's business; Paul has been salesman of the year three times running, however, that was five years ago; Richard is a retired millionaire property developer and Mark is a taxi driver with a weakness for weed and philosophy.

Hywel Bennett Rupert Procter Gregory Chisholm Mark Devenport Julie Legrand Micaiah Dring Jonny Phillips Johann Myers Penny Chettle Tony Claassen Tim Cunnigham Dena Smiles Michaela Megran-Handley Benjamin Linfield-Jones David Peachey Joe Dempsie Alexander De'Ath Alex Milner Matthew Barker Andre Squire Lincoln Anderson Yvonne Varnier

Director Director

Chris Cooke

Producer Producer

Kate Ogborn

Writer Writer

Casting casting.

Victoria Beattie

Editor Editor

Nick Fenton

Cinematography Cinematography

Nick Gordon Smith

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Joe Geary Andrea Slater

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Steven Sheil

Production Design Production Design

Jason Carlin

Art Direction Art Direction

Duncan Wheeler

Stunts Stunts

Composer composer.

Steve Blackman

Sound Sound

John Arnold Tim Barker Doug Cooper Robert Farr

Costume Design Costume Design

Claire Finlay-Thompson

Makeup Makeup

Nicky Clarke

Strange Dog One For The Road Films

Alternative Title

Releases by date, 21 aug 2003, releases by country.

Theatrical 18

94 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★★ 2

Chris Cooke's debut feature length film from 2003 effectively gave Hywel Bennett his last great substantial character role in film. Having retired over a decade ago now due to a heart defect and persistent rumours regarding alcoholism, Bennett turns 73 in just under a fortnight's time and I hope he's well. Equally, I hadn't sat down to watch this in something like ten years. I really enjoyed it at the time, and I hoped I would find it just as well on this repeat viewing.

One For The Road is a feature that's been unfairly overlooked. Centring on the devious, desperate and debauched antics of a group of men who meet on a mandatory rehabilitation course for drink drivers. Cooke's…

Review by Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸 ★★★★

"... I’m pleased to say that Powerhouse’s Indicator series has unearthed a somewhat overlooked, grubby gem from the early 2000s in One for the Road, a comedy that at the time was described by one reviewer as ‘The Full Monty meets The Office’. A tale of four disparate and desperate men who, having committed drink driving offences, have been thrown together on a mandatory alcohol awareness class and feel a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog compulsion to distinguish themselves in the desperate dying spasms of their toxic masculinity. It may not sound funny, but it is. And it is funny because it has something honest and real to say. It did back then in 2003, and I think it still does now, in these post #MeToo times, so I am really glad to see this extras-laden Blu-ray release and I hope it finds a wider audience... "

Read my full review at We are Cult

Review by Luke Thorne ★

Chris Cooke’s comedy-drama. Four drunk-drivers, including Hwyel Bennett and Rupert Proctor, find their lives intertwine at the rehab clinic they're ordered to attend.

The story concerns a quartet of drunk-drivers, all from completely dissimilar backgrounds, who are instructed to go to a restoration clinic and as the course growths, the lives that brought them together are clarified and their indeterminate prospects discovered.

Rupert Procter as Paul, Greg Chisholm as Jimmy, Mark Devenport as Mark and Hwyel Bennett as Richard Stevens all give unconvincing performances in their respective parts as the four drivers caught drink-driving, but don’t show any determination in trying to make their lives better when they really should.

Elsewhere, Julie Legrand as Liz and Micaiah Dring as Eve…

Review by Wilson ★½

I really suffered through One for the Road.

It is a film about four insufferable arseholes who have to attend a rehab course drink driving, we follow their group interactions and track the characters back and forth in a snapshot of their lives. The problem I had with the film is that it is a bleak comedy about addiction and toxic masculinity and it understands how awful its characters are, but it is a utterly misery to watch.

You are claustrophobically stuck in a pub for the majority of the runtime with four people who seem like everything wrong with modern Britain and you are meant to laugh alongside them. I wasn't offended, I think the film wants to offend,…

Review by Abigail🧡 ★★★

Rip jimmy and friends, you would’ve loved carling easy to carry glasses

Review by razorsharp

i’ve wanted to watch this for a long long time, really fresh and punchy, i loved the blown out windows and shaky camera it felt so immediate

it was also really exciting to hear about the context behind it!

Review by Kevin Hurst ★★★½

After watching this my television screen stunk of cigarettes and alcohol.

Review by betsy boo ★★★★

the screen reeked of beer and i think that was v fitting👍👍👍👍

Review by lib‼️ ★★★½

mark charlie kelly variant

Review by Austin Abbott

Watched for some DV inspo for a shoot I’m doing this weekend, and felt like I was in a warm bath surrounded by the grimey Brits smoking and drinking and getting annoyed at THE GRIND™️ with 2000s tech and the glorious digital noise and grain. Great needle drops, great performances and such a great portrait of a bygone time.

Nick and Ethan if you’re reading this I think you’ll enjoy it.

Review by Henry Richardson ★★★★

Quite a depressing film but loved the feel to it.

Can wholeheartedly say they got the psychotic pisshead chat down to a T.

Review by Monty ★★★½

“I’ve got women, all you’ve got is a bunch of lads” - okay don’t slut shame

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‘One For The Road’: Sundance Review

By Lee Marshall 2021-01-29T05:27:00+00:00

Wong Kar-wai produces Baz Poonpiriya’s follow-up to ‘Bad Genius’

Source: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

‘One For The Road’

Dir: Baz Poonpiriya. Hong Kong/Thailand. 2021. 136 mins.

With expectations riding high after his 2017 high school cheating smash hit Bad Genius, director Baz Poonpiriya could have played it safe with another comedy-laced genre thriller. Instead, with Wong Kar-wai as producer, he has delivered what he terms a deeply personal film – a road trip movie during which two twenty-something friends, one suffering from cancer, travel around Thailand calling on girlfriends and ghosts from the past.

A tactile, colour-saturated film that is in love with cocktail culture

Road movies are allowed to meander, and One for the Road exploits the privilege to the full, shuttling between New York and Thailand, where buddies Boss and Aood criss-cross the country from Bangkok to Chang Mai, Korat, Pattaya and beyond, in a very cool 1960s BMW coupé. But Poonpiriya’s good-looking, classily shot third feature wanders in other ways too. It seems unsure of its audience, mixing auteur touches with broad commercial brushstrokes, Yet the overlong film is anchored and lifted by the double act of actor and Thai idol Thanapob Leeratanakajorn (aka Tor Thanapob) and fashion model turned actor Natara Noppartayapon (aka Ice Natara). Though their rapport breaks no new cinematic ground, it chips away engagingly, and unsentimentally, at the roots of male friendship and the question of how young men cope with their own or their friends’ impending death (not very well, it turns out).

One For The Road opens on Aood (Natara) sitting in that hip vintage coupé erasing all but a few contacts on his smartphone. Those left, it will soon be revealed, are the people he intends to visit in person while he still can, before succumbing to leukemia. Cut to New York, where ladies’ man Boss (Thanapob) owns and runs a cocktail bar. A call from Aood, received in mid coitus, summons a reluctant Boss back to Bangkok, where he is shocked not so much by his old buddy’s gaunt, bald appearance, but by the plan he has cooked up – to go on a road trip around Thailand to look up his former girlfriends and return things of theirs that he had kept. “Do I look like a taxi driver?” asks Boss, unimpressed but still unable to say no.

There’s enough here to keep us intrigued: they hit the road with a certain crackle in the air between them, one created not only by Aood’s unapologetic recourse to emotional blackmail but, we soon realise, by something unresolved in their past. As they visit one of Aood’s former girlfriends in Korat, another in Samut Songkhram and a third in Chiang Mai, One For The Road keeps plunging into New York flashback mode. This device fills in some backstory while giving voice to the women in their lives, setting little resistance circuits up to disturb the unspoken male entitlement of these two middle-class Thai lads.

But the film loses its way a little when, on a visit to his hometown in the beach resort of Pattaya, Boss begins reminiscing about his own great lost love – a pretty cocktail barista called Prim – and these memories come to life in one long flashback. Thai singer and actress Violette Wautier is excellent in the role of a young woman juggling emotional ties with a need for independence and self-affirmation, but that doesn’t prevent us from wondering where the story is going now that the road trip has stalled in the mega tourist hotel that Boss once called home. It will all be explained, but by this time the film has shifted from a young male bonding session into boy-gets-girl territory, as if it were trying to keep two separate audiences happy.

Knotty issues – the sex trade in Pattaya, the way young Thais cluster in Thai social ghettos when abroad, culturally embedded sexism – are nodded at, but left undeveloped.

A musical soundtrack of 1960s and 1970s classics (Cat Stevens, Elton John) is neatly woven into the plot via the cassette tapes Aood inherited from his late radio DJ father. We’re drawn in too by the visual sheen of a tactile, colour-saturated film that is in love with cocktail culture, Thai summer nights and truncated romances that might have gone in another direction.

Where once it was only oldies who indulged in the sport of ‘what might have been’, social media and constant connectivity have embedded a kind of diffuse, unfocused nostalgia into the life of millennials the world over. Whether deliberately or not, One For The Road embraces this fuzzy nostalgia to the full.

Production companies: Jet Tone Films, Houseion

International sales: Block 2 Distribution, [email protected]

Producer: Wong Kar Wai

Screenplay: Baz Poonpiriya, Nottapon Boonprakob, Puangsoi Aksornsawang

Production design: Patchara Lertkai

Editing: Chonlasit Upanigkit

Cinematography: Phaklao Jiraungkoonkun

Music: Vichaya Vatanasapt

Main cast: Tor Thanapob, Ice Natara, Violette Wautier, Aokbab Chutimon, Ploi Horwang, Noon Siraphun

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Sundance 2021: One for the Road Review

Overall Score

Rating summary.

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here .

Those looking for one of the coolest films to come out of this year’s festival need not look elsewhere as One for the Road definitely fits that bill. While too much style over substance is a frequent argument when it comes to film, this one provides a harmonious balance of both. Though its longer running time, clocking in at almost 2.5 hours, may be a contentious point for some, it’s a blast to watch that will surely get viewers to feel a gamut of emotions along the way. Many will laugh, cry, and cheer (among other things) over the course of the course of this road trip drama. It’s non-linear structure may lose some but it all comes together beautifully at the end, resulting in rich story about love and loss and the power of friendship. Featuring some unique and beautiful cinematography and an awesome soundtrack, the film is certainly not a dull one.

One for the Road tells the story of Boss (Leeratanakajorn), a high end club owner living in New York, who receives a call from his estranged friend in Thailand, Aood (Natara), revealing he is in the last stages of terminal cancer. Helping the later find some sense of closure during the little time he had left, Boss and Aood would go on a trip down memory lane as the two traveled across Thailand so Aood can return items to his many exes. Their collective history was a long and complex one as we learned the story behind their friendship and Aood’s many relationships. Those stories were definitely wild to say the least but that wasn’t the whole story. As this story came to light, this was where the film shined as it had slowly been building up to that point.

In the end, the best part of One for the Road was the performances of Leeratanakajorn and Natara as Boss and Aood and their great chemistry. While powerful in their own right, the journey works because of them and what a journey it was!

still courtesy of Sundance

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook .

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.

movie reviews
one for the road
sundance 2021

Sundance 2021: CODA Review

Sundance 2021: try harder review.

Walking from here to anywhere through nowhere, and worse

Note: I first saw “The Road” in September at the Toronto Film Festival, as one of eight films I saw in three days. I wrote a draft of a review at the time and sent it. That review accidentally found its way into sight in October, long before the film was scheduled to open. I yanked it offline as quickly as I could.

I saw the movie a second time at a press screening on Oct. 27 in Chicago. I see festival films again whenever I have the chance. I find the second viewing makes the good ones better, and the bad ones worse. Such is the case with “The Road.”

“The Road” evokes the images and the characters of Cormac McCarthy ‘s novel. It is powerful, but for me lacks the same core of emotional feeling. I’m not sure this is any fault of the filmmakers. The novel itself would not be successful if it were limited to its characters and images. Its effect comes above all through McCarthy’s prose. It is the same with all of McCarthy’s work, but especially this one, because his dialogue is so restrained, less baroque than usual.

The story is straightforward: America has been devastated. Habitations have been destroyed or abandoned, vegetation is dying, crops have failed, the infrastructure of civilization has disappeared. This has happened in such recent memory that even The Boy, so young, was born into a healthy world. No reason is given for this destruction, perhaps because no reason would be adequate. McCarthy evokes the general apprehension of post-9/11. The Boy and The Man make their way toward the sea, perhaps for no better reason than that sea has always been the direction of hope in this country.

The surviving population has been reduced to savage survivalists, making slaves of the weaker, possibly using them as food. We’ve always done that, employing beef cattle, for example, to do the grazing on acres of pasture so we can consume the concentrated calories of their labor. In a land where food is scarce, wanderers seek out canned goods and fear their own bodies will perform this work for the cannibals.

Although we read of those who stockpile guns and ammunition for an apocalypse, weapon stores on the Road have dwindled down. The Man has a gun with two remaining bullets. He is a wary traveler, suspecting everyone he sees. He and The Boy are transporting a few possessions in a grocery cart. He encourages his son to keep walking, but holds out little hope for the end of their journey.

I am not sure the characters could be played better, or differently. Viggo Mortensen portrays The Man as dogged and stubborn, determined to protect his boy. Kodi Smit-McPhee is convincing as a child stunned by destruction, depending on his father in a world where it must be clear to him that any man can die in an instant. The movie resists any tendency toward making the child cute, or the two of them heartwarming.

Flashback scenes star Charlize Theron as the wife and mother of the two in earlier, sunnier days. These sequences show the marriage as failing, and these memories haunt The Man. I’m not sure what relevance this subplot has to the film as a whole; a marriage happy or sad — isn’t it much the same in this new world? It has a lot of relevance, however, to The Man and The Boy. In times of utter devastation, memories are what we cling to.

The external events of the novel have been boldly solved, and this is an awesome production. But McCarthy’s prose has the uncanny ability to convey more than dialogue and incident. It’s as dense as poetry. It is more spare in The Road than in a more ornate work like Suttree ; in The Road, it is as evocative in the way Samuel Beckett is. If it were not, “The Road” might be just another film of sci-fi apocalypse. It’s all too easy to imagine how this material could be vulgarized, as Richard Matheson’s novel was in the 2007 version of “ I Am Legend .”

How could the director and writer, John Hillcoat and Joe Penhall , have summoned the strength of McCarthy’s writing? Could they have used more stylized visuals, instead of relentless realism? A grainy black-and-white look to suggest severely limited resources? I have no idea. Perhaps McCarthy, like Faulkner, is all but unfilmable.

The one great film of his work is the Coens’ “ No Country for Old Men ,” but it began with an extraordinary character and surrounded him with others. The Road is not fertile soil, providing a world with life draining from it. McCarthy’s greatest novels are Suttree and Blood Meridian. The second, set in the Old West, is about a fearsome, bald, skeletal man named Judge Holden, who is implacable in his desire to inflict suffering and death. (“Blood Meridian” is being prepared by Todd Field , director of “ In the Bedroom .”)

Hillcoat’s earlier film, “ The Proposition ” (2005), written by Nick Cave , seems almost McCarthy-like. Something in McCarthy’s work draws Hillcoat to it, and you must be a brave director to let that happen. Writing this, I realize few audience members can be expected to have read The Road, even though it was a selection of Oprah’s Book Club. Fewer still will have read McCarthy’s other works.

I’ve been saying for years that a film critic must review the film before him, and not how “faithful” the film is to the book — as if we’re married to the book, and somehow screen adaptation is adultery. I realize my own fault is in being so very familiar with Cormac McCarthy. That may affect my ability to view any film adaptation of his work afresh. When I know a novel is bring filmed, I make it a point to not read the book. Yet I am grateful for having read McCarthy’s.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Charlize Theron as Wife
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Eye For Film >> Movies >> One For The Road (2003) Film Review

One For The Road

Reviewed by: David Stanners

Three drunk drivers and a retired businessman come together in a rehab class. Jimmy (Greg Chisholm) is the young whipper-snapper with an eye for the ladies, Mark (Mark Devenport) a low key taxi driver and Paul (Rupert Procter) a highly strung salesman on the downslide of a marriage. Richard (Hywell Bennett) is an ex property developer with a penchant for karaoke, and the anchor upon which young Jimmy hopes to secure a money scam to relieve him of his much accumulated wealth.

In between role playing exercises, the foursome head down the boozer for session upon session, enduring Richard's amateur status as the karaoke guru and Paul's hyper active claims that he really is a decent salesman - it's the world that failed him. Meanwhile, Jimmy plays it up with the local barmaid and Mark just sits and watches, nursing his pint. The comedy value is at times from the top branch. The dual bantering during the role playing is hilarious, particularly their reluctance to take part at all.

At the end, they pit their wits against a set of teenage car thieves in a paint ball game. Battered and bruised, they make their way to Richard's mansion for a grand finale that brutally unravels the team spirit they had worked so hard to create.

Based on tragic family situations, the value of the comedy swings from bitter to sweet, as we learn more about their backgrounds. Jimmy's mother is a promiscuous alcoholic and Paul's wife has had enough of his drunken shenanigans and shunts him into the garden with a tent. Mark is the semi sane one, whose spectacularly ordinary life and dead pan delivery earns good laughs.

This is a credible debut for writer/director Chris Cooke. It has the quintessential self-deprecating British humour in abundance. If anything, its downfall is the story. There's not enough there to carry it into the classic league, and somehow the comedy is let down by the straitjacketing of the plot. A few more twists would have been welcome.

The acting is more or less there, though. Hywell Bennett is suitably regal as Richard and Rupert Proctor every bit the frantic, but dwindling, Mamet-style salesman.

Room for improvement, but on the strength of this, Cooke could be one to watch.

The New Age

Film Review: One For The Road

Director (and co-producer and co-editor) Markus Goller’s latest is a character drama on the edge of despair, with preachy moments and underwritten characters all compensated for by strong performances throughout.

Mark (Frederick Lau) is a foreman on a Berlin construction site, and he’s introduced getting wild and sloppy while smashed at a bar, as The Slits’ version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine plays. When he spies his car awkwardly parked, he gets in and drives only a few feet to rectify it, and that’s the very moment that he’s busted for drink-driving.

Losing his license and forced to take an MPU (Medical-Psychological Examination) course, Mark insists that he doesn’t have a problem, but then he seriously embarrasses himself at a friend’s housewarming party and has no choice but to wonder if he’s actually right. He makes a bet with bestie Nadim (Burak Yiğit) that he can quit alcohol for a month, and he at first enjoys being booze-free, as he takes up swimming laps, cleans up his apartment, and generally tries to get his act together. And then things get really difficult.

Lau’s Mark is the centrepiece of director Goller’s film, and his playing makes up for the flaws, especially the characterisation of Helena (Nora Tschirner), another alcoholic he meets at the course who’s helpfully there when he needs her but, otherwise, doesn’t have much of a life of her own. Indeed, it’s hard to overstate what a great performance it is, because he must make sure that we like Mark and sympathise with him, even as he does dreadful things. And that we would also happily strangle him.

Perhaps the most subversive message here, too, is one shared by the Danish drama Another Round ( Druk ): as the modern world is so cold and awful then surely getting wasted is really the only logical response to deal with it?

And no American movie would dare say that!

One For The Road is screening as part of this year’s HSBC German Film Festival

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One For the Road: A Bite-Sized Horror

A minecraft movie trailer 1, toronto international film festival 2024: writer blessing uzzi and director afolabi olalekan of freedom way, charlie tango: a turbulent thriller, gregg araki’s teen apocalypse trilogy criterion review: three ’90s classics, newly restored, tuesday: we need more original films like this, sonic the hedgehog 3 trailer 1, toronto international film festival 2024: director/writer sook-yin lee of paying for it, kinds of kindness: three short films in a trench coat, toronto international film festival 2024: heretic, presence & hold your breath, toronto international film festival 2024: director & writer samir oliveros of the luckiest man in america, toronto international film festival 2024: director edward berger of conclave, the crow: an exercise in why.

Two guys find themselves in a diner at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday. A man walks in, tattered and filthy, muttering “Old Mill Road” to himself. The waitress thinks he needs help. Sometimes, it just ain’t worth it to be a good samaritan. Just ask our two leads in One For the Road , the newest short film from documentarian Daniel Carsenty , making his transition into fictional horror. Based on the short story by Stephen King , the film is swift, surprising, and leaves you hungry for more, validating the phrase “no good deed goes unpunished.”

Taut With Tension

Booth ( Alexander Flores ) and Took ( Travis Hammer ) enjoy their late-night meals in the quiet diner, chatting up the waitress Gale ( Katie Adler ). The mood shifts as a stranger ( Richard Clarke Larsen ) enters, his clothes torn and his nails filthy. Gale is afraid to handle him alone, so Booth and Took talk to him, but they don’t get much more than “Old Mill Road,” “Help,” and “Family” before he walks out and stands by their truck. Against their better judgment, the men decide to help him find his family, but they should have listened to their gut.

In One For the Road , Carsenty expertly creates a dark, gritty world that fits the content, with the tension drawn out and punctuated with just enough jump scares to keep you on your toes. The script, written by Corey Slater , captures the essence of King ’s work without replicating it, allowing this short to speak for itself. While the lack of handholding exposition is appreciated, I found myself longing for a bit more of the lore surrounding the tale, perhaps even hoping a sequel or continuation might be on the horizon. If Carsenty continues to craft moods such as this with his future works, we can expect good things.

One For the Road will be screening August 11, 2024 at HollyShorts.

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Jules Caldeira is an Associate Editor for Film Inquiry based in Sacramento, CA. He's a drummer, part-time screenwriter, and full-time Disney history nerd who can be found on social media when he remembers to post, and can be contacted at [email protected] .

Cinema Escapist

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Review: Thai Movie “One For The Road” Blends Buddy Roadtrip with Emotional Drama

“Bad Genius'” Nattawut "Baz" Poonpiriya breathes artistic life into Thailand's cinematic scene with this stand-out film backed by Wong Kar-wai.

By Richard Yu , 13 Jun 22 05:42 GMT

Thai cinemas are often filled with cute but unserious romcoms that, despite best attempts at achieving high production value, inevitably fall to the lowest common denominator of slapstick humor and repetitive feel-good storylines. On rare occasions though, a few films manage to stand out against their peers with unique plots, novel premises, and world-class acting. One for the Road is 2022’s addition to this list. Directed by Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya of Bad Genius fame and backed by Wong Kar-wai, One for the Road brings talented Thai cast members together with a cinematographic style reminiscent of Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood for Love and a plot full of twists and turns.

One for the Road opens with a simple premise: Boss, a playboy bartender in New York who is more interested in sleeping with his customers than making them drinks, returns to Thailand at the request of his friend Aood. It turns out Aood has terminal cancer, and he wants Boss to take one last roadtrip with him so that he can return a memento to each of his ex-girlfriends.

The first half of the film takes us through a series of contemporary meet-ups and flashbacks that tell the story of Aood’s previous relationships. There’s Alice, a dance instructor; Noona, an actress; and Roong, a photographer. The audience never gleans much depth about the three women in Aood’s past however— One for the Road uses them only as devices to point out Aood’s character flaws in his youth, and his introspective reflections as he grapples with mortality.

Aood’s character flaws are ultimately what bridges the first half of the film, which initially comes off as a disjoint set of three romantic tragedies, with the plot twist and drama of the latter half. In a pivotal scene, Boss takes Aood to his family’s hotel in Pattaya and makes him a cocktail inspired by each of Aood’s exes. As Aood downs these drinks, he reveals his largest moral failing in life: betraying Boss’ trust.

Without revealing too much of the plot twist, the second half of the film brings depth to Boss’ otherwise unlikeable playboy persona by introducing audiences to his tragic past. This plot twist comes just in time as audiences will likely tire of the stereotypical love stories of Aood’s exes by the halfway point of the film, and re-engages them with a brand new story that has far more intrigue.

The most impressive part of One for the Road, however, is the cinematography. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a project backed by Wong Kar-wai, One for the Road is a visual treat. The film makes painstaking efforts to showcase the shophouses of Bangkok, the beaches and vistas of Pattaya, and makes artful use of day and night shots in conjunction with the mood of the scenes. The level of detail was even enough for there to be a bar in Bangkok featuring props and scenes from the film, with faithful replicas of the cocktails that Boss made and the phone booth where Boss had an extracurricular liaison with one of his female customers.

One for the Road hits world-class standards of production value with its complex plot and cinematography; global audiences can expect a cinematic experience with Wong Kar-wai’s fingerprints all over it, but with a uniquely Thai flavor. The plot offers both humor and emotional heart-tugging, alongside a fair bit of twists and turns that will keep audiences engaged. One for the Road’s release (and rise to prominence–it premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival) comes at a timely milestone as well, given Thailand’s re-opening to international tourists after one of the world’s strictest COVID lockdowns. Perhaps the combination of the film and its offline bar counterpart in Bangkok would drive some renewed attention for tourists to visit Thailand. At the very least, One for the Road earned its place amongst some of the most serious and artistically sophisticated films to come out of the kingdom in recent years.

One for the Road —Thailand. Dialog in Thai. Directed by Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya. First released January 28, 2021. Running time 2hr 16min. Starring Thanapob Leeratanakajorn, Ice Natara.

One for the Road is available on Netflix

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One For The Road

By Bobby LePire | July 24, 2024

“Dollar Baby” was a unique program introduced by the prolific author and horror legend Stephen King. It allowed independent filmmakers and film students to adapt select titles of his for the price of a dollar. This innovative program lasted for approximately 40 years. One of the last titles available for adaptation was One For The Road . Screenwriter Corey Slater and director Daniel Carsenty adapt this Salem’s Lot pseudo-sequel, aptly titled One For The Road , into a horror short. The question is, did these two manage to capture the eerie atmosphere King is so known for in their adaptation?

Booth (Alexander Flores) and Took (Travis Hammer) are hanging out at an all-night diner. A stranger (Richard Clarke Larsen) enters the establishment, mumbling just one thing over and over. He keeps saying, “Old Mill Road,” which freaks out the server. In an effort to be good samaritans, Booth and Took approach the elderly man to see if they can help him. Eventually, the stranger says, “Old Mill Road. Family,” which leads them to believe his family is in peril on Old Mill Road. When they get there, something feels off, beyond the abandoned cars that is.

“… Booth and Took approach the elderly man to see if they can help him.”

One For The Road , despite its brief 10-minute runtime, effectively builds up the tension and delivers a spine-chilling scare. The characters, though not extensively developed, are intriguing enough for a short horror film. The plot, while not filled with scares, has one standout moment that will leave you on the edge of your seat. This shock is brought to life by some impressive practical effects, and the music sting during the frightening scene adds to the thrill.

The cast delivers strong performances that bring the story to life. Flores and Hammer share a believable chemistry that makes their friendship feel genuine. Larsen’s portrayal of the disturbing stranger is particularly noteworthy. His performance effectively sets the tone for the eerie events that follow, making the happenings near Jerusalem’s Lot feel foreboding.

One For The Road is a polished and creepy outing. It has just one scare, but given its brief running time, that is not a problem. Said fright delivers when it needs to and the effects bringing it to life are very good. The cast works well and sells the dangerous situation nicely.

One For The Road (2024)

Directed: Daniel Carsenty

Written: Corey Slater

Starring: Alexander Flores, Travis Hammer, Richard Clarke Larsen, etc.

Movie score: 9/10

"…a polished and creepy outing."

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Where we may mock light entertainment or the so-called wretches of reality television, there are few diamonds left in the rough. Top Gear turned a show about cars into a communal event even for those who still, nearing twenty-five, hold a provisional licence. But what joy there is in seeing the culmination of decades’ worth of work . A farewell plan for James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond had surely been in the works right around the end of their BBC programme, but The Grand Tour gave them new life, and a bigger budget, to work with. The Grand Tour: One for the Road is an ultimately fitting conclusion for the trio, who are marking not just the end of the programme but finalising their time working together. It is, truly, the end of an era, or at least it is for fans of the show.

Sentiment carries the weaker moments of the special but this is a fitting, funny farewell to the long-running trio. It is the end of an era. Not just for Clarkson, May and Hammond as a recognisable presenting unit but for the elaborate set pieces and wider, staged comedy segments. In its place are the roots of what made their Top Gear and later work on The Grand Tour so enjoyable. Binge-watching a season or two of either show when flat out with the flu, sucking nutrients through a bowl and praying this sneeze is the last, feels like a communal experience. Everyone knew these three and because of it, there is the chance for recurring gags to take hold. Some are reliant on the earliest works the three put together, others contained to just this special.

Instead of those impressive moments where bridges or pulley systems are put in place, as they were in previous episodes of The Grand Tour , there is a grounded appeal to One for the Road . It is almost a shock to see the three working through minor problems and reaching a feasible destination instead of rampaging through the desert in buggy cars or parading around in cars made of mud. There is a realism to their efforts on this last outing which will, inevitably, tug at the heartstrings of those of a weaker mind than stony-faced journalists, watching through a fade of illness and blotches of bolognese. There is still something inherently likeable about the trio and their work together, which makes this finale not just a necessary way to call time on their work together but also an articulate traipse through their achievement.

The Grand Tour: One for the Road is a likeable enough special, filled with enough heart between its three to enjoy. Classic gags are thrown out not for the sake of avoiding repetition but because Clarkson, May and Hammond hope to, at the very least, provide their genuine selves for at least one special. Delicate moments towards the end reveal this. It ends as it began, with the three heading out to the destination of their first special. It hits better than it should and for much of the special, tenderness wins out over humour. There may be moments where Richard “Buttons” Hammond could be left to the crocodiles, but the camaraderie of the three perseveres in moments which, had it been any other special, would be another avenue for a cheap and fun gag. Not this time around, the last time around.

The Smile – Foreign Spies / Zero Sum Review

Bob dylan and the band – the 1974 live recordings review, bob dylan – minneapolis 1961 review.

Jeremy Clarkson
One for the Road
Richard Hammond
The Grand Tour

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One for the Road Reviews

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The Grand Tour's "One for the Road," Retiring a Trio

Last Friday brought us the final episode of a car show concept that started over 20 years ago. It’s been a long time coming, with much hemming and hawing in the media over the conclusion of The Grand Tour , or as many considered it, Top Gear 2.0 . But now the episode has aired, the contract completed, and elderly hosts are off into the sunset to work on their multitude of other projects. It’s finally time for Top Gear's conclusion, The Grand Tour's "One for the Road."

(Note: Spoilers abound in this review, so stop reading here if you wish to avoid them. Other TGT episode reviews are found here .)

Though the show’s name and network changed in 2016, our presenters Clarkson, Hammond, and May, their directorial staff, and production team have been with us since old Top Gear was reborn in 2002. May didn’t join the show until season two in 2003, but nobody remembers used car man Jason Dawe. The days when there was a “Cool Wall” and the whiteboard markers never worked well. Some 20 years ago, a new friend of mine (now my oldest friend) messaged me on Yahoo Messenger via my HP Pavilion PC, "Hey, there's this British car show you might like, it's called Top Gear." It’s been a long journey.

In the final episode of The Grand Tour , our hosts return to Africa as they’ve done several times before, this time to Zimbabwe. There’s a farcical plot throughout the episode that the hosts are going against the director’s wishes (Andy Wilman, actually the exec producer), as they’re “supposed” to be driving EVs around the motorway in England.

the grand tour s one for the road retiring a trio

Instead they choose to go to Africa secretly with their staff of over 70 people and film their final special using cars they love but have never owned. All three select classic coupes: May picks a Triumph Stag, Hammond selects a first generation Ford Capri GXL, and Clarkson pulls up in a Lancia Montecarlo ( Scorpion in NA market).

The prompt is simple - drive from the beautiful eastern coast of Zimbabwe across the country to the more industrial and desert-adjacent western border with Botswana. The trio are keeping it simple this time, working on their own schedule away from the supposed rigors normally put to them by the zealous Mr. Wilman.

Immediately notable is how the hosts are in a better mood than they have been for the past few specials. It’s obvious there’s a weight lifted off them, and they’re happy to finally bid adieu to this chapter. Wistful comments, memories, and references to Top Gear and Grand Tour episodes start right away, and even the music selection is designed to pluck at the emotional strings and remind the viewer that something important is ending.

Your author will opine here that for this particular challenge I’d avoid any of the presenters’ vehicular selections. Perhaps if I was feeling bold I’d have brought a Citroën SM with adjustable hydropneumatic suspension, or if I wanted to take the easy and luxurious route, a Jaguar XJ-S. There are a number of mechanics to fix any issues, so it doesn’t matter if the car breaks down. It’s particularly believable when Hammond pretends there’s no 11 millimeter socket available for him to use.

From the initial meet and greet with the cars in good spirits, a choreographed drive across Zimbabwe fills the majority of the 2 hour and 10 minute run time. It’s a very long episode, but gets a pass as it’s the end of it all.

Hammond’s Capri breaks down first, then shortly thereafter the Montecarlo chugs to a halt. The problems are nondescript and easily fixed by someone, and the journey continues. The show makes a point that the Triumph Stag - a notably unreliable car with a very bad Triumph engine - never has a single fault the entire episode.

The trio knock off their days early and stop driving in the afternoons throughout the episode, because again there’s no director to keep them on schedule. The expected folly of sports coupes in rural Africa takes place almost immediately when the paved roads end. Hosts make no attempt to tread carefully, they just hit the holes head on or steer toward them.

In the first gag of the show, the director “finds out” where the team are, and sends them a backup New Beetle that they promptly send off a cliff. It’s a ridiculous skit that involves an Australian Shepherd, a rope, and a broom handle. They introduce their own backup car thereafter (a Rover SD1 Vanden Plas) which appears at random times, doesn’t seem to be traveling with them through the episode, and isn't really a backup car.

More wistfulness and driving follows, and at 40 minutes in the trio visit a rural scrapyard for a look at some junked cars. Nothing happens for the next 15 minutes, until Clarkson announces that the paper map he’s relying on causes a wrong turn and the group are heading in the wrong direction. GPS doesn’t exist in 2024, you know.

This gaffe presents the next set piece at an hour and 15 minutes where there’s another map issue and the team are at the wrong end of a huge lake! It’s boat time, as they purchase junky boats to travel 180 miles across the length of a lake. But it’s different to previous boat times, because the boats are purchased and not built.

The episode is staged in 15- to 20-minute blocks, as at an hour and 30 minutes the group are nearing the western side of Zimbabwe and its ruinous coal mining activities. At this point the rough road crosses the tolerance threshold, and the team decide to make their cars into locomotives like they did on Top Gear (S17, E4).

The trains don’t work well until they do, but the whole thing is farcical and sort of boring. It lasts exactly 15 minutes, at which point the train cars are converted back into regular cars and it’s time for the emotional concluding act, which lasts 25 minutes. For the remainder of the show, the trio discuss memories, their car show adventures, and the music turns soppy.

One nice moment after the border is crossed into Botswana is the reuniting of Clarkson and May with their actual Top Gear cars of almost 20 years ago, the Lancia Beta Coupe and Mercedes-Benz 280. The scrapped parts were saved by someone, and the reassembled but forlorn cars sit in a sandy graveyard. Hammond is absent here because he owns Oliver the Kadett, it’s in England in one of his garages.

This part of the show does seem like a genuine surprise to the hosts, and Clarkson and May get a bit emotional seeing their old wrecks. More Top Gear appears in the final scene at the salt pans from the team’s very first African journey, the Botswana Special of 2007. In what was surely an expensive bit of film to purchase, the current trio approach the baobab tree on Kubu Island just like they did in 2007, and more content joins the screen.

Clips of the original Top Gear special are interspersed with the group’s final approach as the three are reflective over their TV presenter careers. The segment is very well produced, and after the team sign off and unplug their microphones viewers get to see the large crew celebrating the conclusion of all their hard work. “I hope that we’ve brought you a little bit of happiness,” May chokes out.

It was nice to see the trio get together one last time, and to experience the visible relief washing over them through the episode’s two-hour span. Hammond mentions he never expected the show, what they do together, to go on for so long. And it seems like at the end of their filming (September 2023), the three were long past ready to hang it up. I found a genuine smile on my face at the closing.

“One for the Road” brought to mind a different wistful moment from back in the Top Gear days, the British roadsters challenge (S15, E6). Hammond is in the rain in a yellow Lotus Elan, and says “The whole experience is tinged at all times with the knowledge that we’re doing something that’s… ended.” Indeed it has.

[Images: Amazon Prime]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter .

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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Join the conversation

It was fine until they did their usual stupid stuff: boats, trains...sigh.

I could have even excused the boats, but the train stuff was just boring and bad.

The joke of James deleting the others contact info from his phone at the end was really off putting. It didn't fit with the emotionally charge moment.

May wrote that himself, apparently.

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'One for the Road' Produced by Wong Kar-wai: Sundance Film Festival Review
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COMMENTS

'One for the Road' Takes Us on an Evocative, Soapy Farewell Road Trip
From the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, we review the Wong Kar-wai-produced movie 'One for the Road,' directed by Baz Poonpiriya.
One for the Road
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2021. Alysha Prasad One Room With A View. One for the Road is a terrific film that reminds us that life is coloured by death, which can make everything ...
One for the Road (2021)
Rated: 3.5/5 May 25, 2022 Full Review Steven Warner In Review Online Poonpiriyia is certainly a talented filmmaker, even as his style is undoubtedly derivative, but One for the Road is too slick ...
One for the Road Review: Wong Kar-wai Produces Glossy Thai Melodrama
The film's final 45 minutes jump back in time and shine new light on their shared history, but each new detail is less believable than the last. The bittersweet payoff at the end of the road is ...
'One for the Road' Review: Old Friends Drink and Drive in ...
'One for the Road' Review: Old Friends Drink and Drive in Wong Kar Wai-Produced Thai Melodrama Reviewed online, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, Jan. 25, 2021. (In Sundance Film Festival ...
'One For The Road' Review: 'Bad Genius' Director Steers A ...
A wistful road trip movie that follows a pair of old, estranged friends who reconnect after many years, One for the Road at first seems to radiate cool: it opens on a sweaty Bangkok summer night ...
Sundance Review: 'One For The Road'
Sundance Review: 'One For The Road'. Wong Kar-wai hasn't directed a film in eight years, but the Hong Kong maestro has just done the next-best thing, having produced a film by a young ...
'One for the Road' Review: Wong Kar-wai Produces ...
The bittersweet payoff at the end of the road is satisfying enough to stir up some basic emotion, but it's also more soapy than sensitive. There's more plot here than the film can accommodate ...
One For The Road (2003) Movie Review from Eye for Film
Eye For Film >> Movies >> One For The Road (2003) Film Review One For The Road. Reviewed by: ... editing and actor-led characters that make One For The Road so good. Watch it as a piece of sharp, edgy, quality entertainment - hugely enjoyable. ... Read more One For The Road reviews: David Stanners: Keith Hennessey Brown: Director: Chris Cooke.
One For The Road Review
Read the Empire Movie review of One For The Road. A slender plot takes a back seat to the enjoyable interplay among the company of these used-up...
One For The Road (2003) Movie Review from Eye for Film
Eye For Film >> Movies >> One For The Road (2003) Film Review One For The Road. Reviewed by: Keith Hennessey Brown. Read Max Blinkhorn's DVD Review. Tweet. Having been caught drink/driving, a group of men of different ages and backgrounds are required to attend counselling sessions. Soon, three of them decide that they have the opportunity of a ...
One for the Road (2003)
Permalink. 8/10. Mine's a large one! georgevader 5 September 2005. One For The Road' is a low budget British production directed by newcomer Chris Cooke.The story centres around four men, convicted of drink driving and who volunteer to take a rehabilitation course to have their bans decreased.
‎One for the Road (2003) directed by Chris Cooke • Reviews, film + cast
One for the Road follows Jimmy, Paul, Richard and Mark who meet on a rehabilitation course for drink drivers. Jimmy is young, ambitious and desperate to sell his late father's business; Paul has been salesman of the year three times running, however, that was five years ago; Richard is a retired millionaire property developer and Mark is a taxi driver with a weakness for weed and philosophy.
'One For The Road': Sundance Review
A tactile, colour-saturated film that is in love with cocktail culture. Road movies are allowed to meander, and One for the Road exploits the privilege to the full, shuttling between New York and ...
Sundance 2021: One for the Road Review
One For The Road is an utter blast of a watch, combining a cool style and a killer soundtrack with a compelling and heartbreaking story of love and loss. ... This will be one of many reviews during this year's Sundance Film Festival, ... While too much style over substance is a frequent argument when it comes to film, this one provides a ...
Walking from here to anywhere through nowhere, and worse
Note: I first saw "The Road" in September at the Toronto Film Festival, as one of eight films I saw in three days. I wrote a draft of a review at the time and sent it. That review accidentally found its way into sight in October, long before the film was scheduled to open.
One For The Road (2003) Movie Review from Eye for Film
Eye For Film >> Movies >> One For The Road (2003) Film Review One For The Road. Reviewed by: David Stanners. Read Max Blinkhorn's DVD Review. Tweet. Three drunk drivers and a retired businessman come together in a rehab class. Jimmy (Greg Chisholm) is the young whipper-snapper with an eye for the ladies, Mark (Mark Devenport) a low key taxi ...
Film Review: One For The Road
Director (and co-producer and co-editor) Markus Goller's latest is a character drama on the edge of despair, with preachy moments and underwritten characters all compensated for by strong performances throughout. Mark (Frederick Lau) is a foreman on a Berlin construction site, and he's introduced getting wild and sloppy while smashed at a ...
One For the Road: A Bite-Sized Horror
August 9, 2024. Jules Caldeira. Jules Caldeira is an Associate Editor for Film Inquiry based…. Two guys find themselves in a diner at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday. A man walks in, tattered and filthy, muttering "Old Mill Road" to himself. The waitress thinks he needs help. Sometimes, it just ain't worth it to be a good samaritan.
Review: Thai Movie "One For The Road" Blends Buddy Roadtrip with
One for the Road's release (and rise to prominence-it premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival) comes at a timely milestone as well, given Thailand's re-opening to international tourists after one of the world's strictest COVID lockdowns. Perhaps the combination of the film and its offline bar counterpart in Bangkok would drive some ...
One For The Road
One For The Road, despite its brief 10-minute runtime, effectively builds up the tension and delivers a spine-chilling scare. The characters, though not extensively developed, are intriguing enough for a short horror film. The plot, while not filled with scares, has one standout moment that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
One for the Road
One for the Road. Four drunk drivers meet at a rehabilitation clinic and begin an exploration into their lives. Page 1 of 3, 5 total items. Nice casting for a British independent movie, however ...
The Grand Tour: One for the Road Review
The Grand Tour: One for the Road is a likeable enough special, filled with enough heart between its three to enjoy. Classic gags are thrown out not for the sake of avoiding repetition but because Clarkson, May and Hammond hope to, at the very least, provide their genuine selves for at least one special. Delicate moments towards the end reveal this.
One for the Road
Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews, Trailers, Showtimes, and Tickets ... One for the Road 1h 30m
The Grand Tour's "One for the Road," Retiring a Trio
Last Friday brought us the final episode of a car show concept that started over 20 years ago. It's been a long time coming, with much hemming and hawing in the media over the conclusion of The Grand Tour, or as many considered it, Top Gear 2.0. But now the episode has aired, the contract completed, and elderly hosts are off into the sunset to work on their multitude of other projects. It ...

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‘One for the Road’ Review: Wong Kar-wai Produces Overwrought Thai Melodrama

One For The Road Review

One for the Road (2003)

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