The story of Stuck is simple: Tom (Stephen Rea) is a middle-aged man, recently laid off, and temporarily homeless. Brandi (Mena Suvari) is a young woman, eagerly working her way up in the nursing profession, and always up for a bit of Friday night fun. The day Tom loses his apartment, Brandi is told she is being considered for a promotion. While Brandi celebrates, Tom tries to figure out where he is going to sleep. And at a crosswalk somewhere in between a club, a park bench, a garage, and a homeless shelter, the two collide. Brandi hits Tom head on, he goes headfirst through her windshield, and from there unfolds the tale of a man stuck in a windshield and the woman who won't let him go.

Sound a bit over the top? It is. Way over. I'm talking eye gouging, windshield wiper impalement, frying pan chick fight, dog chewing on broken bone. It is gross, it is shocking, and it is completely absurd. But from its opening scene to its last shot, it is also clever, hilarious, and packed with almost as many thought-provoking scenes and scenarios as the most condescending arthouse snobfest out there.

With Brandi waiting for Tom to die, and Tom doing everything he can to keep on living, at its core, Stuck is a story about survival—what it actually means, what we will do to achieve it, and in the end, what ultimately makes the difference between whether we go up in flames or walk away to live another day.

Even before Brandi hits Tom, the movie has already begun to delve into the mechanics of survival. And its first revelation: in the face of destruction, our own ability to choose may be the strongest weapon we have. The day before Brandi and Tom first meet, Tom is told three times, "it's your choice." He can either vacate his apartment or his landlord will call the police. He can follow the procedures implemented by the employment agency or he can go elsewhere. He can leave the park or be arrested. While Tom may not have much else, the choice to keep on going is still his. With a picture of his son in his hand, he tells us that whatever choice he makes is about more than just him. And even if he must humble himself a bit to keep on moving forward, his steps tell us that that is something he is willing to do.

The problem for Tom is that Brandi also has a choice. When she hits Tom, she can either get him help or leave him to die. Or, as she sees it, she can allow the consequences of what she has done to ruin her entire life, or do whatever she needs to do to hide the whole thing. Although we first meet Brandi as she is performing one of the most selfless tasks imaginable, as the movie barrels on, her focus on herself just grows by the minute. Tom may be dying, but the only person she can see who is worthy of help is herself. If he must die for her to live, so be it. If she must kill him for her to live, then she will do it. Like Tom, Brandi recognizes that she has a choice. A choice to do whatever it takes to preserve the life she has or to open it to possible destruction. But where Tom is willing to kneel to preserve his own life, Brandi reveals that the only thing she is willing to sacrifice to keep on going are the lives of others.

As the movie continues on, both Tom's will to live and Brandi's determination to make the entire mess disappear do nothing but spur each other's growth. As Tom goes from refusing to die to fighting to live, Brandi goes from refusing to call 911 to clubbing him senseless. While Brandi at least acknowledges that she was the one behind the wheel at the beginning, at the end she has made up an entire story in which she has done absolutely nothing and Tom is responsible for everything that has gone wrong. "Are you crazy?" Tom yells at her. And by the end, that really might be an appropriate diagnosis.

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