The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Gary
Drama · Comedy · 2026
Two friends go on a work trip and encounter unexpected challenges and local personalities as they navigate their assignment. Their efforts to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings highlight moments of humor, small-town culture and the unpredictable nature of work travel. Their experience offers new perspectives on their friendship.
Movie details
Gary
2026 Drama · Comedy 1h 0m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.5 / 10
Community rating
Two friends go on a work trip and encounter unexpected challenges and local personalities as they navigate their assignment. Their efforts to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings highlight moments of humor, small-town culture and the unpredictable nature of work travel. Their experience offers new perspectives on their friendship.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Gary?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Treasure
Drama · 2024
A music journalist accompanies her father, a charmingly stubborn Holocaust survivor, on a journey to his homeland. While she's eager to make sense of her family's past, her dad has an agenda of his own.
Grandma
Comedy · 2015
Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future.
Hooking Up
Comedy · 2020
Bailey and Darla embark upon a misguided and mutually deceitful form of therapy, one in which they must drive across the country, re-enacting Darla's colorful history as a sex addict. As their true motivations for the road trip come to light, the unlikely pair force one another to confront their issues, discovering that there might actually be more to love than just sex.
Kodachrome
Drama · 2017
Matt Ryder is convinced to drive his estranged and dying father Benjamin Ryder cross country to deliver four old rolls of Kodachrome film to the last lab in the world that can develop them before it shuts down for good. Along with Ben's nurse Zooey, the three navigate a world changing from analogue to digital while trying to put the past behind them.
Bustin' Loose
Comedy · 1981
After ex-con Joe Braxton violates his probation, he is given a second chance. All he has to do is drive a group of special kids across the country.
Unpregnant
Drama · 2020
After discovering she can’t legally get an abortion in Missouri without her parents’ permission, teenager Veronica convinces her former best friend Bailey to take a road trip to Albuquerque to seek the procedure.
The Middle Man
Comedy · 2021
Frank Farrelli takes on the job as a middle man in the God-forsaken town of Karmack, USA, a community in a depression so deep that they need a middle man to professionally communicate more of the bad news.
Mickybo and Me
Drama · 2005
The film tells the story of two boys who become friends at the start of the Troubles in 1970. The boys share an obsession with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with the consequence that they run away to Australia.
Scarecrow
Drama · 1973
Two drifters bum around, visit earthy women and discuss opening a car wash in Pittsburgh.
Driver's Ed
Comedy · 2025
A group of teens hit the road in a stolen driver's ed car, racing against time to help a lovesick high school senior track down his college-freshman girlfriend and win her back.
Where it lives
Watch in your region.
Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.
Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Christopher Storer
Written by
Ebon Moss-Bachrach · Jon Bernthal
Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Richard 'Richie' Jerimovich
Jon Bernthal
Michael Berzatto
Marin Ireland
Sherri
Gillian Jacobs
Tiffany Jerimovich
Nation Sage Henrikson
Cowboy
T.J. Jagodowski
Bar Patron
E
Elisha Evans
Elisha
Court is in session
Put Gary on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.