Tribeca Festival 2024 Review: “Daddio” – Raw and Full of Heart!

One location films take highly skilled writers and collaborators to make them happen. With these types of films, the screenwriter is at tout in such a way. In 2021 we were given the film Mass, directed by Fran Kranz, which did an excellent job showing how tense and suspenseful a film can be between a group of individuals having a prolonged discussion.

Related – “The Watchers” Review: A Folk Horror Misfire!

Daddio, starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, is an authentically New York film following Clark (Sean Penn) the driver of a taxi cab picking up his passenger, Dakota Johnson, at JFK Airport, headed back to her home in Manhattan. What transpires is a rollercoaster of a conversation that covers everything from love and s*x, to regrets and family. Christy Hall’s debut film is an engrossing watch that maintains its sense of realism throughout adding in sentiment that will make anyone’s heart grow.

Christy Hall’s script has the amazing ability to add weight to everyday dilemmas and choices one must make. Stories that can often be summed up in one sentence, allowing people to judge one another based on what seems like “simple” facts, is explored in Daddio.

Dakota Johnson’s character lays out all of her cards to Clark, who responds by giving her raw advice that, although may seem harsh and unsettling at times, gives the audience a better understanding of the two characters at hand. The film is not afraid to allow its characters to speak their minds, whether the audience gets behind their advice and views or not. This gives more color to the characters that resemble a more realistic type of human than what a lot of films feel comfortable portraying.

The film is written in a way that peels back the layers of its two characters in a slow manner, allowing us to see the nuances of their situations and their own personal identities. It is a beautiful portrayal of the many sides of humans, ranging from our selfishness to our full ability to love. Sean Penn plays Clark with such talent, being off putting and matter-of-fact all at once, with a heart of gold at his center.

Just as Clark explains, Dakota Johnson’s character is more than meets the eye, being a computer programmer who would rather take a taxi cab than use a rideshare app. It is so easy to see her on the outside as a s*xy woman with the world at her fingertips but just as Clark tries to dig, Hall’s script allows Johnson’s character to open up and blossom even if her blossoming isn’t her figuring everything out.

Daddio was released and written at a perfect time, to exhibit a period in time that still exists but is slowly beginning to see its end. This reminds us of the power of human connection and communication that will never be replaced by convenience or applications. For even an hour and forty minutes, one conversation with another human being will be more worthwhile then the time plugged in. This is not to say that Hall is diminishing technology, in fact a handful of screen time is used for showing text conversations.

However, the film sees the driver-passenger connection as a time capsule that we can maintain and share with this changing world if we keep our minds open and engaged. Daddio has a lot within it that brings up so many different conversations, but at the end of the day the comfort one feels viewing the films is the same comfort we can all get by remembering that connection is what ties us all together.

‘Daddio’ Rating – 4/5

Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7