‘Self Driver’ review: Dir. Michael Pierro [Panic Fest 2025]

Once upon a time, taxi cabs ruled the public transport highways, but during the last decade they have been pushed into the background in favour of rideshare apps such as Uber. This line of work – driving strangers around – has become the primary source of income for some. That is not to say that the pay is good, but it does present those with a car a valuable opportunity to increase their cash flow. These apps form the centrepiece of Michael Pierro’s feature debut, Self Driver. 

Whereas the likes of Uber and similar driving apps were lauded as a great way for households to increase income, the reality is that it is a lot of work for little reward. This is exemplified brilliantly in Self Driver as the story follows the desperate plight of a man known simply in the credits as D (Nathanael Chadwick). D has recently lost his job and is struggling to support himself, his girlfriend, and their newborn child. In desperate need of money he has taken to driving for ‘Vrmr’ a fictionalised version of real world rideshare apps. The promises of cash have proved empty however, with payments tied up in red tape and D having to drive literally around the clock to come anywhere close to earning a living wage. This is a sad reality for many and Self Driver communicates this effectively. 

One night, D is offered a new position at ‘Tonomo’, a new cloak and dagger app that comes with a series of strict rules, but the promise of exceptional rates of pay. Too desperate to realise that this new job is too good to be true, D switches to the new app and quickly finds himself, and his morals, tested to their limits. What should be a matter of driving people from A to B, morphs into D being faced with a series of increasingly difficult challenges. 

Anytime a genre movie comes with rules, the audience knows that they are in for a good time. In film, rules are made to be broken, and as soon as D is briefed on Tonomo’s rules of conduct, the viewer becomes interested to see how these become broken and what the repercussions of those actions will be. These rules include not talking to passengers, a warning that declining a job ends his shift, and quitting halfway through a gig resulting in the forfeit of all his wages

As is the way with these types of story, the tasks that D is handed, quickly escalate, but D is reasonably unphased by most of it. His stress and desperation to support his family has left him numb to the world around him and it takes far longer than one would expect for him to start to consider backing out. It’s an interesting way to present the story, as so many similarly staked narratives have the hero baulk early on. Their stories then focus on the torment of them continuing. Here, D’s torture comes from the threat of losing money and so he forges ahead, until finally something stops him in his tracks. Self Driver presents an interesting study of morality and forces the viewer to analyse how they themselves might react under similar circumstances. 

Films based around Uber-style drivers have come into vogue in recent years with Spree an obvious example, but rather than focus on the driver, Self Driver is far more interested in making commentary on the climate of the ‘self’ employed model of living. Both organisations that D works for are traps, and Self Driver highlights these almost Ponzi scheme style business models of employment. At the same time as delivering this message, Self Driver proves to be a robust debut, with Pierro making the most of his limited budget. Featuring an engaging premise and ever escalating series of moral quandaries, Self Driver is a taut thriller that takes aim at the modern working climate. 

Self Driver was reviewed at at Panic Fest 2025.