The Ride Review
Director: Thop Nazareno,
Date Created: 2025-12-19 01:45
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The Ride Review: Directed by Thop Nazareno, this lean Filipino drama-thriller clocks in at barely 64 minutes. Headlining the film is Piolo Pascual as Barry, a morally compromised father, and Kyle Echarri as his teenage son Leo, whose relationship with Barry is strained long before this story even begins. Rounding out the cast in supporting roles are Joey Marquez, Gabby Eigenmann, Ramon Christopher, and Kit Thompson, with the screenplay written by Nazareno with John Paul Bedia and Dodo Dayao.
Netflix’s The Ride is a Hasty tale of a father-son duo, whose journey to see a probably dead family member appears to be a very simple one at first, but soon becomes dangerous and is full of confrontations and the whole incompleteness of their past and present being brought to light through the driving miles.
The Ride Review
The Filipino film The Ride focuses on the estrangement of Barry and Leo more than it does on the outside threat that is after them. It draws on the road as a closed, emotionally charged area, one where there is no escape, and the silence speaks as loudly as confrontation. Indeed, the crime and violence engage the plot, but truly, this is a tale of personal redemption.
Nevertheless, the protagonist Barry is not depicted as a kind of misjudged man who has set off on a trip to redeem himself; rather, he is depicted as a person who has fully realised his failures. Leo, on the other hand, is a person who is very disillusioned and suspicious and who takes the situation with a much more restrained and less confrontational attitude than outright rebellion. It is this character interplay that constitutes the emotional core of the film, and that even the least audible moments gain their significance from it.
Nazareno’s control of the actors and the story tends to be more personal than spectacular. There is a car chase and a shooting in the movie, but these do not overpower the whole story. On the contrary, they almost become points of pressure that escalate the tension of the emotions. The director seems more interested in the interactions among the characters inside the car amid the chaos than in creating an action-packed thriller. Some might feel that the movie should go more in the direction of a crime movie, but this is a trade-off that allows The Ride to stay focused on its vital theme: the damage parents inflict on their children, knowingly or unknowingly.
One of the film’s major strong points was its visual tone. The use of the desaturated colour palette and the high-quality cinematography were among the aspects that created a feeling of discomfort and inevitability. There was, however, a situation in which the road was closing in on the characters just as Barry’s past had caught up with him. The editing of the movie kept the story moving at a very fast pace.
However, the shortness of the film’s runtime sometimes went against the deeper examination of certain moments. Certain narrative beats seem to come too fast, plus some supporting characters are more like narrative tools than real people. Nevertheless, the film’s short runtime is a major contributor to the fact that it rarely overstays its welcome.
The ride brought into the spotlight the performance of the two main actors. On one hand, Piolo Pascual’s performance was both taking a backseat and powerful at the same time, making him devoid of any heroic qualities. Pascual Barry is a man who feels pity and is resigned to his fate, a person who realises that apologies might no longer work. He is a master of understatement; his silences often communicate more than the dialogues he delivers.
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On the contrary, Kyle Echarri becomes the emotional heart of the movie. His Leo vividly expresses the turmoil of a boy entangled in the conflict of getting mad and wanting to know the truth. Echarri allows Leo’s change to happen gradually through the film, with each emotional shift feeling justified rather than artificial.
The movie The Ride is not just a mere crime drama; it is one’s theme of inheritance that really and mainly makes it so: not money or position, but violence, trauma, and conduct. The film is through and through asking this question, whether the cycle can ever really be broken or if the mere awareness is enough. But the film, while narrating the plot, does not directly point out its message, hence keeps the viewers in doubt about the idea of people being a lot more like the ones who bring them up than they think, even when the upbringing is not easy, and they are constantly trying to defy it by all possible means.
However, it must be noted that The Ride is not a perfect movie. Besides shining unevenly sometimes in the part where it is dressed up as a mixture of drama and action, it is as if the film is not yet sure about the genre to which it has to belong. Some of the most dramatic moments seem to get the audience in and out all at once or even mainly without being seen on-screen at all, which does slow down a bit their ensuing effect.
The short runtime, while being very effective in maintaining the momentum, does not allow the story to give a complete picture of its secondary characters and the implications of the story on a wider scale. All these issues and problems keep the film from hitting the high notes.
But even with all its shortcomings, The Ride is still a movie worth seeing. The emotional truthfulness, the excellent acting of the main characters, and the clever directing all contribute to the film’s endurance in spite of its narrative weaknesses. A trailblazing movie it isn’t, but one that is sincere, tense, and contemplative; it certainly leaves its mark long after the credits have rolled.
Netflix The Ride Review: Summing Up
The Ride is a gripping central performance, atmospheric storytelling, and emotional depth. A bit longer in runtime and firmer in its commitment to genre might have elevated it, but as it stands, the film works as a character-driven journey that resonates more for what it says about family and accountability than for its action beats.
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