ComedyYear2022Duration1h 46mIMDb5.6

Next Exit

ComedyMysteryRomance

Two unhappy strangers find themselves on a road trip across the U.S. to partake in a scientist's radical experiment with the afterlife in Mali Elfman's poignant sci-fi debut.

Trailer

Cast

Mali Elfman

Director

GP

Gavin Powers

Reo

JP

Joe Powers

Niko

Katie Parker

Rose

Karen Gillan

Dr. Stevensen

Ty Molbak

Chad

Michael May

Congressman Lucas

Rahul Kohli

Teddy

Tessa Hersh

Life Beyond Supporter

Jim Ortlieb

Milton

Angel Murphy

Reporter

EH

Eric Hoff

Charon Manager

Nerea Duhart

Charon Employee

SL

Sally Levi

Grieving Woman

Drew Brandon Jones

Talk Show Host

Tongayi Chirisa

Father Jack

Tim Griffin

John

Lisa K. Wyatt

Bartender Sam

JN

Joel Nevells

Liquor Store Owner

Mali Elfman

Writer

Comments

10 Comments

ASSANGAMAR FAYEAug 3, 2025

j'admire

ASSANGAMAR FAYEAug 3, 2025

j'admire

Asha Adhikari🇳🇵✔May 29, 2023

londie_london_officiMay 23, 2023

Tick tock... watch out behind the dark closet door little boy. The boogie DAD is gonna get you. The silly Hitchcock'ian music and story telling is blowing this film. Arrrrgh! Can't believe the writer put up with this terrible soundtrack and boo ideology. I like the actors THAT'S WHY I'm even watching this. Tick Tick dong, Tick Tick toe (insert loud over dramatic music here) and you are probably just as triggered as the rest of us are. Spoiler, let's all go kill ourselves now that life is too tough, after all we can still be a ghost with physical touching abilities to interact with living family numbers in the here and now...bleh.

BUSHA_ALMGDOP❤️May 23, 2023

The premise is good. Really good. It's one of those topics that a couple friends might stay up late discussing. What would you do differently if you knew there was an afterlife? The idea also subtly showcases the nonsense of those who claim to believe in an afterlife, but are in no hurry to get there. If they really think heaven awaits, you'd think religious folks would be a lil less careful with their safety, or just outright looking to die. At any rate, that great premise is where the accolades end. About 1/4 of the way through the movie it dawned on us that we weren't watching a sci-fi flick (which is heavily implied not only by the premise, but the cover art as well). This is not a sci-fi film. It's a romance dramedy that's trying so desperately to be quirky, but is one of the most cliched, generic, and basic movies I've seen this year. We had a few moments where we paused because we were doubled over laughing at the insanity of how poorly constructed it all was. My theory is that someone who is talented came up with the idea and passed it along to a script-writer who isn't talented and makes their living by pumping out quantity over quality, like Lifetime/Hallmark movies. The lowest common denominator of audiences will like it, but most will just feel like they wasted two hours. It's a shining example of how a good idea is only the start of a successful endeavor, whether that be movies, cooking, programming, music, etc. It felt like an off-brand of movies like Garden State where two lost souls find one another while forced to share one another's company during an unconventional journey. Very heavy on the tropes. Very cringy dialogue. This is a movie where if you tried to talk to me about it as we left the theater, I would just ignore you because I'd be so embarrassed to be seen walking out of the theater. I can appreciate the premise. That's one area where Hollywood needs lots of help, and this movie got that right. It's not insanely unique, but I can't think of any other movies that tackle this topic in this way. Everything else is bottom drawer stuff, except maybe the acting which was passable, although the script was so bad you don't really notice or care. I don't review a lot of movies on here, but when I saw this had a score on the upper half of the scale, I just had to vent. Real garbage stuff. I feel like I should ask Hulu for a refund on my monthly subscription just for having to sit through this.

Lintle SenekaneMay 23, 2023

The first 3 minutes, leaving the door ajar, boy meeting dead loved one. A lot of movies today are mixing tropes like mad in order to tell a story in a NEW way, not dissolving or challenging tropes, but increasingly dissolving genres. I never did like genres anyway, even if "science fiction" as a genre has been my guiding star towards a good many movies that had nothing to do with science and much much more with making the future a SPACE, where some desired things would become possible, other things freekin obvious, and all the rest just inevitable (says fears and projection). The future is a great place to be. And an even better transit station for even better things to come. Or worse, if you are into that. I am not. I like a good yarn. And this is a good yarn: "I can promise you there is something after dying, come see for yourself, we are all about science". And so people do, the leads do, and as we know: Forced travel brings people together, who would never have given each other the time of day. There is so much grief in the world presently. Things we though over are not over, things we hoped to stop seem unstoppable, we are not sacred as a species, nor holy or evil, or even thoughtless - the universe, or simply life and climactic functions on earth, only has one way of expressing reaction to our disruption of evolutionary rules and that is reacting to disruption like a child rather than intention or logic reacts to intention with great precision, if permitted... It is a painful movie for me. They are both beautiful, and become even more so, through their acts of love and courage, and when forgiven, we are right there forgiving them too- THIS is what we want: Loving and being forgiven and forgive and love, to not give up..

Solomone KoneMay 23, 2023

I came to mark this movie as viewed, when I read the reviews. Since I use other's reviews here to decide if I'm going to watch something, I feel like the current reviews paint a much to negative view of it. The 2 lowest scores CLEARLY didn't get the movie since both give examples that are easily explained if you paid attention, but since I'm trying to do this without spoilers, you'll just have to trust me. If your idea of sci-fi is only Star Trek, you are going to have a bad time. Technically this is sci-fi but only as an flimsy excuse for a road movie. What you get is excellent dialogue and acting with a couple charming character arcs and a healthy dose of dark humor. It doesn't back away from the very heavy subjects but always does it so the humor and drama balance each other out. So it isn't a comedy but you'll probably won't feel like suicide afterwards either. I would have given it a solid 7 but the ending was way to cliché and so predictable. Don't expect a story, a mystery, spooky supernatural stuff or anything like that. This is just a movie about two souls meeting when they are going through a phase at the end of their 20's ( quarter life crisis )

Aymen OmerMay 23, 2023

I really liked this film. It's mis marketed and they didn't need to drum up some crazy sci fi angle at all. The acting and character development was enough for me. I notice a lot of movies like "Smile" deal with trauma based subject matter and the deep parts of the mind that are affected by it. But they have to hook you with gimmicks instead. They didn't need that here. The acting is really good, the ghost aspect is confusing but I think that should have been the premise not the sci-go angle. Either way it's a good film. I really was into it at the end and I've personally dealt with similar problems so it impacts me more. Either way go into it not with sci-fi lens, but instead a humanist drama. Enjoy! 7/10.

lillyafeMay 23, 2023

While it may be a mediocre existential drama it has almost nothing to do with sci-fi or mystery. They say the journey is more important than the destination, yet in this case the journey was slow burning and boring just as the destination. I was hoping this movie would be more in the realm of McDowell's "The Discovery". But it was not. This theme has already been exploited in many movies and TV shows so why they chose the sci-fi platform to tell a simple story that contained no exceptional emotional charge or identification with the protagonists is beyond me. This is not a bad fim (drama), but also not a good one. For some reason I expected far more.

user378722817270May 23, 2023

... which is never make a promise to the audience that you can't deliver on. The first 3 minutes of this film sets up a premise so outrageously compelling that it would not surprise me if another film-maker grabs it and makes a proper movie about it down the road. However, and this is the point, Mali Elfman, the first-time Director of Next Exit, does nothing with it. Just sort of leaves it hanging, a constant reminder for the audience of what this movie could have been. That said, this is a not-bad road movie, and a so-so rom-com, but any attempt to call this science fiction is stretching it. The kind of film where, if you were flying NY to London, you might get hooked somewhere over the Atlantic. Maybe. And, oh yeah. Elfman has this really weird talent for repeatedly miscasting former model Karen Gillan (of Dr Who fame). Elfman produced THE PARTY IS JUST BEGINNING, 2018, where Gillan was so off-character it seemed as though she was deliberately trying to implode her own career. In this film, she is barely recognizable. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

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