ractors is an ongoing series in which Hassle writer Jack Draper examines films, new and old, whose directors are better known for their work in front of the camera.
I can’t imagine any film covered on Diractors this year will be more nonexistent– that is, will have a little to no reputation very soon following its release– than John Travolta’s Propeller One-Way Night Coach. Travolta apparently wrote this for his family as a sort of gift, adapting from the children’s book (???) of the same name. They loved it so much that he decided to “share it with the world,” which to say he was looking for something to resonate with other kids and families the way he did with his own kids. This is the part of Night Coach I don’t dislike entirely, as having more family or animated films from movies directed by actors is a nice change up from what’s expected. Travolta is clearly comfortable making a period piece this exact. He can tell a story that’s well rounded with syrupy-sweet memory, but without much vigor in the storytelling at large. After all, what’s there to be uptight about when dealing with the memory of an eight boy who’s moving to California with his actress mom?
The more amusing part of Night Coach is that Travolta has been earnestly flying planes for years now. In their soft launch of the film, the Cannes film festival said, “He began flying at just 15 years old, obtained his first pilot’s license at 22, and has since earned numerous certifications: John Travolta is certified to fly Boeing 707s, 737s, and 747s, Bombardier’s Global Express and was the first private pilot to fly an Airbus A380 With over 9,000 flight hours under his belt, the actor has also owned several aircraft for Young Jeff (Clark Shotwell) is clearly a stand-in for Travolta’s eight year old self, and holds the movie together while inhabiting a character from a children’s book. Jeff’s mom, Helen (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett), is angelic in the eyes of her son, minding her business on this very long flight and socializing with fellow passengers while Jeff has his little mind blown by the magnificent feeling of air travel. So much of Night Coach reminds of Robert Zemeckis’s Here, which fixes the camera in one room over many decades but primarily spanning across the health of one family. Both movies have very little to say about the human experience or depth, their big hearts ending up bugs rather than features. It’s the kind of film art director Sal Romano would go on to make after leaving Sterling Cooper in Mad Men.
Travolta does have a fizzy enough vision in mind of 1962 America and what it feels like to board an airplane for the first time as a kind, lending the material a kind of “aw, shucks” attitude that any Boomer his age finds it easy to tap into. As I’ve been told many times by my own parents, flying used to be more novel than it is now. Travolta reckons with this as he makes a movie full of moments that have left an impact on him, such as a cute stewardess (played by his daughter, Ella Beau Travolta) or being able to see the pilot’s area. However, Night Coach is so devoid of any tension or weight that it literally can’t take off (sorry) above its 60-minute runtime. Nor does it achieve much of anything apart from nostalgia, opting for being boring and offering one person’s fixation nobody else finds intriguing. The amount of luscious needledrops and snappy dialogue never feels elevated for someone’s directorial debut, proving Travolta a lackluster story teller.
Even considering what a film by John Travolta would even look like at his age. Travolta has inarguably been in some of the great American movies of the 20th century. His screen presence has been obvious ever since Carrie, continuing through hits like Blow Out, Urban Cowboy and Look Who’s Talking (as well as flops like Perfect, Two Of a Kind and Staying Alive). What’s difficult about Travolta as a filmmaker is that he clearly is not pulling inspiration from a past collaborator, and can’t zero in on a personal vibe that can translate into a tone behind the camera. We still don’t know too much about Travolta personally, despite him probably being evil with ties to Scientology and being lost at sea in the streaming slop for the last 25 years. Even without adapting his own book, I think any movie he made would be equally as directionless.
Propeller One-Way Night Coach
2026
dir. John Travolta
62 min.
Now streaming on AppleTV+
