When I think of stunt drivers, I think of that iconic shot from Bullitt, with the car flying through the air on the streets of San Francisco. Or I think of the video game Driver, because it was one of the earlier computer games I remember playing and loving, while wishing somebody would turn it into a badass film franchise. When I think of stunts, I think of all the incredible stunt work we’ve seen throughout the history of cinema. Combine those two things and you get a stunt driver, somebody who drives and does stunts. Except The Stunt Driver isn’t about a guy doing this for the movies. This is about a guy who did this stuff for real. Jay Baruchel plays Ken Carter, the Canadian daredevil who became famous for attempting something that sounds insane even by daredevil standards: jumping a rocket-powered car one mile across the St. Lawrence River. Let that sink in. An actual mile. Not half a mile. Not a really long jump. A whole damn mile in a car.

If you go to Ken Carter’s Wikipedia page, you’ll find out exactly how all of this worked out for him. However, you may not want to do that before watching The Stunt Driver, because part of what writer-director Michael Dowse is doing here is embracing the showmanship of who Ken was and what he was trying to accomplish. Knowing everything in advance could leave you sitting there waiting to see whether the film eventually delivers the kind of gut-punch ending that this story potentially has waiting for you. I’m not going to tell you whether or not it does. I will say that The Stunt Driver is very much about the journey rather than the destination. Dowse, who previously directed Baruchel in Goon, understands the particular kind of Canadian underdog story he’s telling and keeps the movie surprisingly warm and light on its feet considering that everything revolves around a man potentially launching himself to his death.

Jay Baruchel has made quite a career out of playing the everyman, possibly the slightly nerdy everyman, but nevertheless somebody who seems attainable. You can look at so many movie stars and not see yourself represented at all, but I think people can look at Baruchel and see something of themselves. He has managed to sustain a career for decades without needing to bulk up, learn mixed martial arts, or dramatically alter his entire physical appearance just to stay in the game. By being affable, likable, funny and occasionally much more dramatic than people give him credit for, he’s found himself in several meaningful roles over the years. Most notably, relatively recently, there was BlackBerry, Matt Johnson’s terrific and Oscar-snubbed true story about another piece of Canadian history. Here, Baruchel gets another real person to sink his teeth into, and he finds the humanity underneath all of Ken Carter’s bravado. There’s fear underneath this guy. There’s ego, certainly, but there’s also an obsession with getting this exactly right because getting it wrong could mean dying.

Ed Helms plays Dick Keller, the rocket-car designer brought in to help make this seemingly impossible stunt actually work. He’s essentially one of the people tasked with making sure Carter doesn’t kill himself. The car is specifically fitted to Ken and designed around his body, something the movie drives home when Ken discovers somebody else has been allowed to drive it. His reaction initially seems like an ego trip until he explains why he’s furious: the car has been calibrated for him. His height. His weight. His positioning. Something that seems insignificant could affect everything when you’re talking about launching a human being inside a rocket-powered vehicle at hundreds of miles per hour. That’s one of the things The Stunt Driver does well. It reminds us that underneath the spectacle there is actual engineering, planning and precision. These guys may be insane enough to attempt these stunts, but that doesn’t mean they simply strap themselves into a car and yell, “Let’s see what happens.”

Then there’s Evel Knievel, played by Ben Foster, representing almost everything that seems to irritate Ken Carter. Knievel is obviously the more famous name, the American daredevil who became synonymous with this kind of spectacle. So when Carter tries to sell people on his stunt, naturally they start wondering whether Knievel should somehow be involved, because he’s the celebrity and presumed expert. That quietly drives Ken insane because he sees what he does as something different, and the movie gets some mileage out of that competitive relationship between two men whose work outsiders might consider interchangeable. Foster’s Knievel is perfectly fine because Ben Foster seemingly tries to knock everything out of the park. He just has been given so many richer and more complicated roles over the years. I love Ben Foster, and I still believe he should be an Oscar nominee someday, but this isn’t going to be the performance that gets him there. I’d much rather have seen the Academy recognize him for The Messenger, Hell or High Water, or Christy. Here, he’s essentially being asked to swagger into the movie and give us the Ben Foster version of Evel Knievel, and he absolutely understands the assignment. It’s fun, but nobody involved in The Stunt Driver is giving the best performance of their career.

Laurence Leboeuf also deserves mentioning as Gloria, Ken’s wife, because someone has to live with the reality of loving a man whose great ambition in life involves potentially turning himself into a human projectile. Dan Bakkedahl plays Bill Wilkins, another figure involved in getting this mammoth undertaking off the ground. The supporting cast helps Dowse build the world around Carter so this isn’t simply 99 minutes of Baruchel staring at a ramp. The film understands that something this ridiculous requires money, engineering, publicity and a collection of people willing to believe in the guy behind the wheel. It also understands the strange intersection between artistry and showmanship. Carter isn’t simply trying to survive a stunt. He wants to prove something about himself and his craft, and whether you consider that inspiring, egotistical, completely nuts, or some combination of all three is part of the fun.

Independent Film Company is releasing The Stunt Driver, and I continue to have a weird relationship with IFC because they frequently seem to know exactly what my wavelength is. Ghostlight really hit home with me, and last year The Plague ended up being my favorite film of 2026. Twice now they’ve managed to release my favorite film of the year between Ghostlight and The Plague, yet for the life of me I cannot seem to get an audio-described screener from them. At least once this year I did my standard request where I mentioned that, if possible, I would appreciate an audio-described screener for a title released through an arm of IFC, and I didn’t even get the screener. This time I didn’t ask for audio description and, magically, I got the screener. I don’t know what it is about this studio and my relationship with them, because I like their movies more often than not. I just wish accessibility didn’t feel like such a strange point of contention when they actually do pay for and provide audio description for many of their theatrical releases.

The Stunt Driver also has the unfortunate luck of arriving on a very crowded weekend. These smaller independent films are fighting for oxygen while audiences have their attention pulled toward several bigger and heavily promoted releases. That’s a shame because I liked both The Stunt Driver and The Incomer. I think they’re both good movies, and I don’t want people to simply wait several months until they accidentally stumble across them on a streaming service. If we’re truly living through some kind of theatrical resurgence, then word of mouth can’t only apply to giant studio releases. It has to extend to movies like these. Not every good film is going to become an awards contender or a box-office phenomenon. Sometimes a good movie is simply a good movie, and it deserves the opportunity to find an audience.

I don’t think The Stunt Driver is going to become one of those under-the-radar awards contenders that suddenly keeps gaining momentum as the season moves along. This is a solid effort rather than an extraordinary one. But I’m delighted that Baruchel continues to get lead roles like this instead of being permanently shoved into the character-actor category, bouncing from supporting performance to supporting performance. He has the ability to shape a film around himself, and when he’s asked to embody a real person like Ken Carter, there’s something compelling about watching him disappear just enough without abandoning the qualities that made Baruchel such an appealing performer in the first place.

I know The Stunt Driver has audio description, but I haven’t heard the track, so I can’t compliment anyone who worked on it yet. Perhaps somewhere down the line I’ll watch the film a second time and finally get to experience it with audio description. For now, strap in, buckle up and hit the gas, because The Stunt Driver is nothing if not entertaining. It’s a warm, funny and occasionally surprisingly thoughtful look at a man who aspired to master his craft, distinguish himself from everyone else doing it, and accomplish something that sounded absolutely impossible. Even if it meant risking everything to do it.

Fresh: 7.4/10