Along for the Ride
NETFLIXThat bridge between college and whatever comes next, the summer of absolute purgatory, is a fascinating time. Along for the Ride makes it a rekindling of a life seemingly lost to studying and hard work. A childhood never kindled. It may be why so many are keen to take a gap year, to enjoy themselves. But the whining chords of music and a narrator whose life has been rather cushy – albeit a few strands of stress – are as vacant in the mind as they are in the writing, with this Sofia Alvarez-directed feature marking another unremarkable film for the coming-of-age romantic comedy, as if there were any shortage of those.
To the credit of Along for the Ride, it turns something unremarkable into something useless. Graduates who sneak into a bell tower and ring a bell for a whole hour. Rebellious stuff. Toilet paper too? Nasty way to celebrate. Certainly not a patch on drinking a local bar out of their spirits or a slap-up meal, but neither would make good on the synth nonsense on the soundtrack. It wouldn’t hit as well for Emma Pasarow and company, who appear in the vague and generic instances of new generations struggling to fit in. Within that mix of miserable characters is Andie MacDowell, whose supporting role is the generalised middle-class monster mother that Along for the Ride will feed off of when it needs some emotionally vulnerable moments.
All of that is black and white. The gags, shortcomings and trickery Along for the Ride presents are clear as crystal, and boring too. It’s the pretentiousness of it. Of the shots that are meant to figure out something grander than what it is. Alvarez showcases shots of her leading characters waving their arms through the breezy freedom of driving a convertible, the unobtainable desires of the upper-middle class on full display as not some easy living but a hard-fought battle where a teenager can exist in a state of both owning a flash car and also needing to scrape together pennies for college. It is the lack of reality that Along for the Ride has for itself and its characters that ruins the relatively simple relationships – not the performances or writing, which are mild at best.
Pizza parties, brand new starts on the beach, and fancy dresses to boot: Along for the Ride is the empty and soulless product of society it hopes to avoid for itself. Ironic it may be that the characters deemed heroic and focused are those that pursue the exact lifestyle of those that ridicule them. Such is the social chain, and if that were an active choice rather than a fumbling misreading of the room, then Alvarez could have been praised. Instead, her work is banal and silent, festering away alongside all the other coming-of-age features which think they have depth and structure, but actually, just hope to be turned into the popular star of the show. That is what all of these characters want. Much to their detriment, that is what they get.