Film Review – DADDIO: Christy Hall’s New Taxi-Cab Drama is Earnest and Intelligent with Two Knockout Performances [Tribeca 2024]

Daddio Review

Daddio (2023) Film Review from the 23rd Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Christy Hall, and starring Dakota Johnson, Sean Penn, Marcos A. Gonzalez and Shannon Gannon.

Christy Hall’s wildly entertaining new character study, Daddio, centers itself around a cab ride from JFK airport to the heart of Manhattan. That’s not the longest ride to squeeze a film out of, but Daddio does it, thanks in large part to a hold-up in traffic which stalls the ride a bit somewhere near the film’s mid-section. There is much more deep human emotion featured in Daddio than was expected and the movie stimulates the mind through its intellectual conversation between the film’s main characters even if some of the dialogue seems a bit unrealistic at times.

Sean Penn plays the cab driver, Clark, who the audience, as the movie progresses, learns owns a small home in Jackson Heights, Queens. Penn is raw and authentic all the way through the movie even if some of his character’s bluntness and use of vulgarity could have seemed like a turn-off to its main character who is known in the credits as Girlie (Dakota Johnson). Girlie seems more offended by the suggestive nude picture that her boyfriend sends her while she’s riding in the back of the tax-cab that’s taking her to the West Side of Manhattan.

Clark makes some really good conversation with Girlie who soon feels comfortable sharing some personal details of her life during the extended cab ride. Penn is especially on-point in his performance and comes up with a delicate turn that could re-establish him in the cinematic world after what seems like a brief absence from the limelight. Penn is a two-time Oscar winner and commands the audience’s respect and attention at all times throughout the course of the picture.

Dakota Johnson feels passionate on-screen with her vibrant performance as “Girlie” who has blonde hair and looks younger than she probably is. A conversation about women’s ages comes into play in the movie as Girlie reveals that she may be a bit older than she appears. Clark, in turn, starts to dish out some of the differences between the types of women that men like to marry and those women who men just want to fool around with. It turns out that Clark correctly guesses Girlie is seeing a married man. It even winds up that he has a kid or two as well. That situation may not work out as expected for Girlie.

There are deep revelations from Girlie in this movie that may not always be 100 percent plausible. However, Dakota Johnson’s layered work makes it a role that ranks somewhere near the top of her recent performances. She and Penn play off each other like two finely-tuned violins in glorious harmony. While Penn’s character may seem too blue-collar and too blunt to always service the plot correctly, Johnson’s performance makes it easy to believe that Girlie is 100 percent intrigued by Clark.

Clark reveals how he met a wife of his when she was in the back of his cab with some friends and there are touching revelations regarding Clark’s life developments that hit the right dramatic notes. The two lead characters one-up each other with their reveals and, eventually, when Girlie discusses her one-time pregnancy, we get to learn why she has come to rely on consoling words from a stranger to try to make sense of her own life’s current predicament.

The scenes where the pair get stuck in traffic stall the movie a bit but are nevertheless enjoyable to watch. It’s pure bliss watching two performers of this caliber create multi-dimensional performances without the need for the use of big action scenes or heavier major plot revelations. Still, there’s enough meat on this film’s thematic bones to make it have a certain level of complexity and depth that sets it apart from other recent independent films.

While Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson rarely hit a false note, the movie does go “all in” on Girlie’s relationship with her family, including her relationship with her dad. Girlie may have some sort of “daddy” issues but, maybe, she also sees in Clark the type of strong father figure she never really knew. Under Christy Hall’s probing direction, this film never steers clear of difficult subject matter and is a stronger film as a result.

Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson are perfectly cast here. There is nothing that feels fake about their performances even if the dialogue may seem at times like too much information and potential deal-breakers for the characters at hand. In a lesser film, the ending wouldn’t have been so emotional but the movie plays its cards right by not making the ending overly sappy. The realism regarding the conclusion of the film is one of its biggest strengths.

Daddio is a great way to spend an hour and a half in a theater. It has characters who are relatable and the viewer will come to care about them through their verbal revelations. Don’t expect something conventional and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how well Daddio makes us believe in its main characters. It’s a very good film about life, doubts and those hard everyday decisions. It’s sure to strike a nerve with audiences who like their films gripping and heartfelt.

Rating: 8/10

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