Bobby Farrelly’s teen comedy Driver’s Ed has already started to turn heads, and Kumail Nanjiani is part of the reason why. The film, which premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, follows a high school senior named Jeremy who hijacks his driver’s ed car with classmates Evie, Aparna and Yoshi in tow and sets off on a hourslong run to Samantha’s college.
The chase does not stay quiet for long. School security officer Walsh is sent after the group by Principal Fisher, while Jeremy’s detour turns into the kind of chaos Farrelly says he wanted: a story about kids making bad choices, but still having enough hope to keep moving.
Farrelly said he and his brother Peter usually write their own scripts, which is why Thomas Moffett’s screenplay landed with him only because somebody he knew passed it along. Once he started reading, he said, “it was so much fun.” He compared the material to The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, saying he liked the world Moffett created — a high school setting that is funny, scary and packed with the dumb mistakes teenagers make. Farrelly also said the script “had a hopefulness to it,” and that he is drawn to stories that capture that “it’s not all about the darkness.”
That tone mattered because Driver’s Ed is built around a crowded ride and a fast-moving ensemble. The cast includes Sam Nivola, Sophie Telegadis, Mohana Krishnan, Aidan Laprete, Tim Baltz, Molly Shannon and Nanjiani, who plays substitute teacher Mr. Rivers. Farrelly said he had to find four actors who could pull the core group off, adding that Nivola is the lead and “terrific,” while the other three are also strong enough that he thinks they are all here “for the long run.”
The film’s early reception suggests that balance is working. Driver’s Ed currently holds a 71% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, a solid start for a movie that is leaning on nostalgia without trying to be spotless about its characters. Farrelly’s pitch is simple: these are “dumb kids doing dumb high school things and making mistakes,” then going on an adventure that turns funny before it turns into anything else.
That may be the film’s best shot at standing out now. Teen comedies often flatten one half of the equation, either the jokes or the emotions, but Farrelly is betting that Driver’s Ed can keep both in the same frame. With its TIFF debut behind it and a wider release ahead, the question is whether audiences respond to the same mix that won him over on the page: the laughs, the danger and the feeling that, for once, the mess is still heading somewhere worth following.
