Film Review: DON’T MAKE ME GO: John Cho and Mia Isaac Make Road Trip Movie a Winner [Tribeca 2022]

Don’t Make Me Go Review

Don’t Make Me Go (2022) Film Review from the 21st Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie directed by Hannah Marks, written by Vera Herbert and starring John Cho, Mia Isaac, Kaya Scodelario, Josh Thomson, Otis Dhanji, Stefania LaVie Owen, Mitchell Hope, Jen Van Epps, Jemaine Clement, Quentin Warren, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Graham Vincent, Madeleine McCarthy, Tane Williams-Accra, Jade Harlow and Simon Mead.

Filmmaker Hannah Marks (Mark, Mary & Some Other People) returns to the Tribeca Festival this year with her new heartfelt dramatic comedy, Don’t Make Me Go. Marks has created a very emotional, yet also terrifically entertaining, new picture that stars John Cho in a dramatically challenging role for the very underrated actor. This new picture showcases one of Cho’s most moving performances and under Marks’ guidance, Cho comes up with one of his best performances to date as well. This new picture is well paced and is simple to digest for viewers looking for something both relatable and easy to follow.

Cho plays a single dad named Max Park, a musical artist turned every day professional, who is getting it on with his “booty call” Annie (Kaya Scodelario) as we first meet him. He has a teenage daughter named Wally (Mia Isaac) and it seems that Wally’s mom, Nicole (well portrayed by Jen Van Epps) had bailed on her when Wally was just a child.

Max receives some news of a brain tumor that could lead to his death. If Max gets surgery, he will only have a 20% chance at survival. Desperate to spend what could be his last days with his daughter (who he grounded in the early part of the picture when she got involved with the wrong crowd), he conceives a plan. He decides to try to reunite Wally with Nicole, and a road trip is set into motion. Max convinces Wally to tag along by offering her driving lessons. However, he doesn’t tell her the real reason for this journey to Florida. She believes they are traveling to his school reunion which is actually happening along the way.

Don’t Make Me Go opens as the father and the daughter arrive on a nude beach. They are there by accident and Wally is embarrassed. Then, the film flashes back in time to show how the pair arrive at that location. Wally sneaks out to go to a party in one scene and when Cho tries to reach out to her when he realizes she is not where she is supposed to be (with him), Cho captures the worried nature of Max’s character to perfection. Max is a good father who knows that his daughter is flawed but he also realizes she’s just a teenager and has a lot of growing up to do.

This film surprises when it suggests that Wally could be the more mature one because she’s not the one lying about going to a false destination. Wally keeps it real the best she can. When Wally falls for a young guy, and he rejects her attempts to kiss him, the result is a bit heartbreaking because Wally, in this scene, realizes everything is not attainable that she wants in her life. When, later on, we learn that Wally has some other problems, it all begins to make sense because she certainly has a lot to deal with. A bit more than your average teenager.

When the film reaches the dramatic sequence where Max goes to his reunion, more plot revelations are brought into view that make an already complicated situation even harder. Max can’t get a break. We finally meet Nicole and learn that everything Max thought was attainable for Wally’s future is not going to be so easy to grasp.

Isaac and Cho have some very powerful scenes together. They mostly argue throughout the picture but when Wally tells her dad how much she needs to have him in her life, it’s quite a moving scene. Cho’s Max is flawed but he is only human and, as a parent, tries the best he can to leave Wally with a promising future.

People will be divided about the movie’s ending but I actually thought it was a good one. This movie was not predictable but keep in mind a scene where Wally is flipped upside down because the results of that sequence will come into view later on. By the time Wally and Max share some quality father/daughter time together as Max sings at a karaoke bar, fate seems to have other things in store for these two characters.

Cho holds the movie together but Isaac is equally capable of demanding the viewer’s attention in their scenes together. As Guy, Max’s good friend, Josh Thomson also stands out with a quality supporting performance that is a typical confidante role but has a bit more substance to it thanks to Thomson’s work here. As one of Wally’s pals, Stefania LaVie Owen has some good scenes opposite Isaac too. It’s a well-cast picture.

While there are problems with Don’t Make Me Go (it is a bit overlong, it may be filled with one too many plot developments and the last scenes may turn off some viewers), John Cho is a fine actor who never fails to surprise viewers with each new part he takes on. I was happy to see Isaac’s character was so strongly developed as well. She is not your typical teenager by any stretch. Overall, emotionally speaking, this is a moving picture that could sneak up on you and make you happy you took this trip with these characters.

Rating: 7.5/10

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