The Backseat

Chris Bellant stars in this film as Roy...a very insecure high schooler who is trying to create a new band. Along the way, he meets Samantha (Allyson Reilly) and they soon fall in love. Watching them together is often very sweet, though later Roy becomes incredibly jealous and controlling and loses her. Can Roy get it together or his he destined to remain alone and miserable?

"The Backseat" is a very frustrating film to watch. On one hand, it features a cute relationship between two teens who seem so much more normal than your typical romance. Neither is gorgeous and I think this is a big strength of the movie. Unfortunately, while the film generally does a good job with these two, it also has two serious problems. Roy, while very sweet and cute, becomes so fantastically controlling and jealous that the film is a bit creepy. The film seems to give a mixed message about this...as if it might just be okay! But a much more serious problem is that the movie is so incredibly crude and offensive--something you would not normally want from a romance! How offensive? REALLY offensive. So offensive that it would be a serious turnoff to most couples. IMDb has a policy which prevents me from quoting from the most egregious examples but include many comments about anal intercourse, gay slurs and some horribly demeaning comments about the developmentally challenged that made me cringe--and it would most likely do the same to most viewers. These comments as well as a few of the songs are not exactly romantic...to say the least. Now I am not a super politically correct sort of guy but that clearly was beyond what most folks would consider offensive.

The bottom line is that this film is incredibly uneven--as if some talented actors and a director were given a script written by Bevis and Butthead. They and the audience deserve better.