I’m not going to outline the plot in this review. Anything that you haven’t gleaned from the trailer or from following Rich, Glenn and Casey feels a little too spoilery, so I’m just going to share my overall impression of the movie. 

The ‘bottle episode’ has become a staple of episodic television. Shows as diverse as Friends, The Sopranos, Firefly and Supernatural have experimented (with varying degrees of success) with the concept of a character driven episode shot in a single location with minimal guest players. 
Driven goes one further with the concept by presenting a ‘bottle movie’. An essentially two-handed piece, shot almost entirely inside a car.
For a character study, this would be a challenge. For a high concept genre movie, it’s ambitious to the point of lunacy (Wind Chill, with Emily Blunt, attempted something similar back in 2007, but that movie widened its field of play beyond the car to an extent that Driven never does).
It *really* shouldn’t work. 
Yet it does. Beautifully. 
One of the biggest reasons why, for me, lies in the character of Emerson. As written and played by Casey Dillard, she’s whip smart funny, with just the right mix of sarcasm and self-doubt to make her deeply relatable. To me, at least. Though I wish I was half that witty. The movie wisely gives us some quality time with her before introducing Roger, so that we are laughing and rolling our eyes along with her by the time they meet.  
A character like Em needs a strong scene partner. In Roger, Emerson gets the foil she deserves. With Roger, Glenn and Casey have given Richard Speight Jr his most appealing movie character yet.  Quite simply, it’s the perfect role to showcase his particular cocktail of born leader, frenetic goofball and supportive good guy. As you would imagine, he brings a huge amount of energy to the humorous elements of the script, but he’s particularly effective in the gentler moments where Roger and Emerson really connect.
It’s a necessity of the script that Rich is given a fairly large amount of expositional dialogue, which I’ve always deemed to require a particular skillset to deliver without trying an audience’s patience (Anthony Stewart Head in Buffy is the benchmark for me). Rich alternates between an underplayed, almost weary, accepting-of-his-lot yada yada yada tone and self-important ‘I’m the chosen one’ style declarations, making the exposition high in comedy value. 
Roger is definitely one of those movie characters you lose your heart to. For someone who’s seen some very dark things and bravely stepped up, he’s delightfully awkward and endearing. And he is introduced to the story in series of moody close-ups so lovingly framed I was left wondering if Glenn and/or cinematographer Michael Williams has a bigger Rich crush than I do.  
Which brings me to the style of the picture. Because despite being shot on a tiny budget, Driven looks incredibly stylish. For a movie set entirely at night, the screen often pops with colour.  It also sounds good. Aside from an atmospheric and emotive score by Matthew Steed, there are a couple of lovely songs that feature as Emerson’s radio playlist, including input from Virginian folk duo The Tide Rose. (On that note, someone needs to clue Roger up on that classic Supernatural line about driver and shotgun).
For a movie that’s set in an Uber-esque environment, Driven does often feel oddly old-fashioned. That’s in no way a criticism. It’s simply that to me, the focus on character interaction owes more to screwball comedy than horror comedy. Emerson and Roger bicker and banter like Tracy and Hepburn.  
That said, there are hugely modern elements that made me do a tiny fist-pump in my lap in the cinema.
There’s a moment where Emerson talks with Roger about her ex, Jess. A fairly unisex name. And it shows just how conditioned I am to horror written by straight male writers that there was a beat where I waited for Roger to assume Jess was a guy, and  then make a ‘Mmm, that’s hot’ reaction face when he realised this was an all-girl situation. I know Casey better than that, yet it was still my reflex. And that demonstrates so starkly why we need more women creators and more representation in movies, especially genre movies. That moment of quiet, simple acceptance was *huge* for me.
And once it’s revealed that one of Emerson’s previous loves was a guy, it would be easy to expect that this odd couple with the sparky chemistry would be sucking face before the credits roll. But again, the screenplay defies expected tropes. They are allowed to be two cute humans who respect and care for each other to the point of risking their lives, without those pesky swimsuit parts getting a look-in. Refreshing. 
So there you have it. 
I had a lot of hope invested in this movie. To the point that even expected to be a little disappointed once I’d finally seen it. But it delighted and amused me more than I could ever have hoped. One scene even made me teary. It’s a small film with big ideas, big laughs and an even bigger heart. I fully expect many fandom viewers to see themselves in Emerson, who has demons of her own to defeat. 
One last thing, the movie may have screened at FrightFest but don’t let that scare you. Driven isn’t bloody or violent. It delivers jumps scares and dark humour. If you can handle SPN levels of horror, buckle up and enjoy.