Movie Reviews

[Tribeca ’22] ‘Next Exit’ review: What if there was life beyond?

I see dead people.

June 10, 2022

Next Exit sounds like a bleak take on a popular genre. It has been proven that there is life after death. People accept the existence of ghosts and a controversial study named Life Beyond has been set up in San Francisco to help volunteers painlessly transition from life into death. Rose (Katie Parker) and Teddy (Rahul Kohli) both have appointments and end up sharing a car on the cross country trip. As they get closer to their appointed deaths, they start to revisit their pasts.

The road movie has long been a part of cinema. These stories tend to be about self-reflection, beginning a new life, or finding true love. They take elements of other genres and put them on a journey of discovery. Next Exit adds many of these themes, but includes a supernatural twist. It further distances itself from similar stories by making the ultimate goal suicide.

Next Exit is not the first film with a pair of leads that are trying to end their lives, but it may be the most heartfelt. Rose and Teddy are likeable leads that the audiences will get behind. The familiar tropes are here; there is friction between the two – mainly coming from Rose – but over the course of the trip the begin to from an inevitable bond. It never comes off as trite or formulaic, however. These are two people that are easy to care for.

The story is an excellently written one filled with emotion. Moving monologues give depth to Rose and Teddy. They are not just broken people who want to move on to the next life. The two of them have done everything they can to make themselves and others happy. It is not so much about failing in this life, it is about doing better in the next one. As the trip progresses, the two share intimate secrets with each other. An air of regret and sadness fills their rented car.

Which is not to say Next Exit is all doom and gloom. It is actually one of the funnier movies of 2022. Kohli has great comedic timing while Parker effectively conveys a range of emotions. The two have great chemistry and when things move in the expected direction, it is hard not to cheer for the two. Being a cross country road trip, they also encounter oddball characters (including meeting a stranger in a Texas bar in one of the film’s most powerful moments). Some surprising scares make the movie a trip everyone will want to take.