Driver's Permit
AIMDb Rating
85K
Your Rating
Popularity
6
“Some teens are road-ready. Others are not.”
In the summer of 1985, a sixteen-year-old in suburban New Jersey loses his learner's permit for the eleventh time and is sentenced by his mother to a Saturday driver's-ed class taught by the worst gym coach in the county. There he meets a girl with her own reasons for failing the test repeatedly. Over six Saturdays, four borrowed station wagons, and one truly ill-advised trip to the shore, they figure out approximately nothing about driving and almost everything about each other.
- Director
- Wendy Sokolsky
- Writers
- Wendy Sokolsky
- Stars
- Trip Mancuso · Bea Holcombe · Skipper Vail ›
Top Cast (5)
Trip Mancuso
Eddie Lankford
Bea Holcombe
Tess Ramos
Skipper Vail
Coach Wally
Frankie Pelusi
Donnie "Booger" Brescia
Maria Espinosa-Reed
Mrs. Lankford
User Reviews
5 reviewsUnderrated 80s gem
by 80s_comedy_devotee
Sokolsky writes teenage dialogue that actually sounds like teenagers. Trip Mancuso and Bea Holcombe have great unforced chemistry. The shore-trip sequence is one of the best comic setpieces of the decade.
Charming if uneven
by matinee_archive
Some of the supporting characters feel like they wandered in from a different, broader film. But every scene with the two leads alone is gold. Hold for the closing-credits cover of "Walking on Sunshine."
Lightweight fun
by casual_classics
Not aiming for greatness, just a good time. Provides one. Forgettable in the best way. Better than its title implies.
Hasn't aged perfectly
by modernist_picks
A few jokes land awkwardly in 2024. The central romance is sweet and the soundtrack is fantastic. Mixed feelings overall — admire the craft, wish a couple of scenes had been written differently.
Where has Bea Holcombe been hiding
by underrated_comedy
She gives one of the great teen-comedy female leads of the era and then almost never made another film. Watch the parallel-parking scene at the end of the second Saturday. Comedy gold.
Details
- Release date
- June 13, 1986 (United States)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Language
- English
- Also known as
- Carnet a Pruebas · Permis Provisoire · Führerschein-Frust
- Filming locations
- Montclair, New Jersey, USA · Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA · Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
- Production companies
- Crown Jersey Pictures · Sokolsky-Vintner Productions · Half-Pipe Films
Box office
- Budget
- $4,800,000 (estimated)
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,200,000
- Gross US & Canada
- $18,400,000
- Gross worldwide
- $24,800,000
Technical specs
- Runtime
- 1h 34m
- Color
- Color
- Sound mix
- Dolby Digital
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
