Daddio (dir. Christy Hall)

By: Adam Freed

What could’ve been a mundane taxi ride from JFK into midtown Manhattan quickly evolves into a revelatory heart to heart between two strangers about life, love, and the dark nature of human psychology.  Christy Hall writes and directs the crafty conversational bombshell Daddio with just enough intrigue by way of script and an overabundance of performance talent from its twin stars Sean Penn (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking)  and Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey, The Peanut Butter Falcon).  Despite beginning as an observational and at times invasive conversation, the twosome dive into their eerily shared experiences as the much older driver Clark imparts some welcome observational wisdom on his much younger customer.

Hall’s experiment of setting nearly the entirety of the film’s action within the confines of the taxicab could’ve backfired in a number of ways.  In the case of Daddio though the physical restrictions placed on the talented duo of actors forces an immediacy and gravity into the minutiae of each performance.  There is more communicated in the furtive glances shared between the two, even in moments that exist away from their conversation.   Credit to the creativity with which Daddio is lit, capturing the screen duo through the use of cucoloris, hearkening back to the age of film noir and focusing specific attention on the eyes or mouth of the speaker. The lion’s share of the credit however belongs to Christy Hall, who despite the confines of the film’s structure provides both actors with room to roam.  In particular, Johnson’s unnamed character is living in two worlds, one within the cab conversation and the other a mysterious and hyper sexualized relationship being explored via text message.  There is no question that Sean Penn is, and has been, one of the world’s more gifted screen performers for decades, but Daddio is a film that requires balance and nuance, in which Dakota Johnson matches Penn’s dynamism note for note.  Christy Hall’s film is a powerful reminder that there can be pearls of wisdom and self reflection embedded into any of life’s mundane moments.  

Target Score: 8/10  For Christy Hall’s Daddio, the beauty is in its simplicity.  What begins as a small talk conversation on a cab ride, becomes a revealing and reflective moment for the film’s two central characters.  Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn are both at their best in this layered and dynamic film. 

Daddio was screened in conjunction with Movie Archer’s coverage of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.