“2 to 2. … We are tied.”

Story: A woman (“Girlie”) takes a taxi home after a flight from Oklahoma. Clark is the the typical taxi driver guy. Girlie is a typical Midtown dweller. But when traffic deadlocks, they really start talking, and learning, about each other. Nobody’s typical, y’all.

Genre I’d put it in: Thoughtful Character Driven Pieces
Release Date: 2024 (2023 festival circuit)
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Original (Black List 2017)

Gotta say: A film about two people talking? I figured this would be a blend of Waiting For Godot and My Dinner With Andre; a film of a play, and a film that feels like a play. Both absurdist, both focusing almost solely on two characters. So? I prepared myself for almost two hours of Very Deep Thoughts, and dug in. And I was surprised by how this simple, slice-of-life premise pulled me in so completely.

Daddio definitely feels like a film that started out as a play. Writer/director Christy Hall makes her feature film debut here, after an incredible start with the high school superhero-esque miniseries I Am Not Okay with This. As with This, Daddio has a simple premise that digs deeper than you initially would imagine. Here, Clark and “Girlie” (Dakota Johnson’s character never gives her name) jokingly try to one-up each other on who can be the most truthful, and the most honest. There’s a man who drops uncomfortable truth bombs, and a woman who really seems to need to hear them. Or at least she needs the honesty right now.

As the cab ride continues, they swap truths about themselves. The Q&A between the two goes on and on, from family to relationship intimacies, bucket lists to moments of truth that each character seems to need to tell someone they’ll “never see again”. Okay, so I know what you’re thinking. “Oh man, you mean it’s all blah blah blah? Nothing but two people sitting around talking?” Well, two things. One, they’re not really sitting, they’re driving. (For the most part, anyway – NYC traffic is definitely NYC’ing.) Two, yeah, that’s exactly it; see my opening paragraph.

And this might not be for everyone. People who go to the theater for adrenaline might immediately write this one off simply because it’s about emotions rather than gunpowder. But I say the little explosions in Daddio are just as powerful as any Bay joint, if you let yourself sink in, and care about the characters. Which is easy, as Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn pour their immense talent into every second of this film. Johnson’s Girlie is a woman who seems all over the place; she’s sick of her seemingly creepy boyfriend, she’s in a place between old her and new her, and she’s trying to get a grip on all of that. Penn’s Clark is a man who’s been through a lot, especially as it pertains to what Girlie is currently going through. He’s part bartender, part highway dad, spitting his version of truth to someone he thinks really needs it.

Johnson and Penn have a quietly electric way of playing off of each other that’s riveting. It leaves behind the absurdism of stories like Godot and Andre, placing the story firmly in the real world. Daddio is gritty, touching, and even with the intense conversations, beautifully uplifting when all is said and done. These two may never see each other again, but I kinda like to think these characters each made a mark on the other, for the better.

The last ten minutes of Daddio puts the rest of the film into a different perspective. Not good, not bad, just different – as if we learn what was really going on behind the eyes of one of the characters. Johnston and Penn absolutely blow it out of the water with their raw, open-hearted performances, making me feel like I wanted to immediately re-watch this film. Y’know, just to see how things play out with what I’d learned. Maybe in a day or two. I’d like to sit with these characters, and these performances, a little. Daddio is a helluva ride, with experts at the wheel. C’mon and ride.

#Protip: Yep, JFK to Midtown does indeed have a flat taxi rate. So Clark and Girlie’s playful jokes about traffic and fares are on-point.