A scientific study known as Life Beyond, launched by Dr. Stevenson in San Francisco, allows people to commit painless suicide with the knowledge that an afterlife does exist. In New York City, two ready-to-die strangers, Rose and Teddy, randomly end up sharing a rental car for a cross-country trip to their respective Life Beyond appointments.
Next Exit is the directorial debut of Mali Elfman, who wrote it more than ten years before its premiere.[2] She would revisit and add on to the script every time she was in a "difficult place" or facing a struggle in her life. She wrote the lead role with her friend Katie Parker in mind, and cast Rahul Kohli as the second lead because she liked his performances in the television series iZombie (2015–2019) and the Netflix series The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020). Elfman's friends Rose McIver and Tongayi Chirisa, both of whom also star in iZombie, as well as Karen Gillan and Diva Zappa star as well.[3]
Next Exit was in development for over eight years before Helmstreet Productions decided to finance it. It was shot during the COVID-19 pandemic in the states of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona from January to February of 2021.[2][4][5]
Release
The film premiered at the Tribeca Festival on June 10, 2022.[6][7] In July 2022, Magnolia Pictures bought the distribution rights to the film, and scheduled it for release in November 4, 2022 under its genre arm, Magnet Releasing.[8] In August 2022, Blue Finch Films acquired the film's international rights.[9]
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 45 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10.[10]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[11]
Accolades
The film received the award for Best Cinematography at the Tribeca Film Festival.[12]
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