To say Hollywood is in desperate need of small to Mid-budget movies that diversify the endless supply of garbage is one of the biggest understatements of the year.

Earlier this year Dakota Johnson put herself in a bad position with the release of the Sony back film Madame Web. The actress got herself in a bit of hot water with Sony Executives who did not appreciate the fact that she was very subtly burying the movie during the marketing phase of the film which got overwhelmingly negative reception from critics and audiences alike.

 It won’t be a shock to many to see Madam Webb end up on many people’s worst films list of 2024 but the bigger story here is where this leaves Dakota Johnson and her standing with the industry. Before the Madame Web debacle, Johnson already had another Sony film in the can entitled Daddio. And if you haven’t heard of this film it shows that Sony isn’t too interested in promoting a film with Dakota Johnson front and center.

 Daddio is best described as a character study of human depravity. In the film Dakota Johnson plays a woman referred to as girly. Girly is picked up at a New York airport and is driven into the City by a cabbie named Clark played by Sean Penn. By stating the obvious this film involves a lot of talking as this film doesn’t have a central plot. It is just a story of two people in a cab talking to one another and revealing things about their lives that raise some serious moral questions about how the characters got to this position in the first place.

 For those of you that love character studies and dialogue-driven movies this will certainly be a film to check out as Daddio represents some of the purest forms of Cinema that is rarely seen and if it is is rarely promoted. Dakota Johnson plays a woman who is at a crisis point in her life due to numerous poor life decisions up to this point.  Johnson’s character is in an affair with a married man who she has fallen in love with; however, she is unsure if he feels the same way about her.

 Sean Penn is a character who’s a typical Blue Collar New York cabbie who has seen it all in his days driving around the city.  As Clark begins to figure out his mysterious  Patron the two begin to reveal intimate details about one another which gives them a whole new set of reflections on each other’s lives.

 The reason why this is a character study of human depravity is because neither character has much of a leg to stand on when it comes To morality.  One character is dealing with her struggles of having a relationship with a married man behind his wife’s back along with the consequences that come with such a decision.  On the flip side, our cab driver deals with his life decisions that have led to two marriages,  a few sketchy situations,  and a life that doesn’t have much genuine human emotion.

 The story is about two broken characters who find one another at a juncture where they truly need the interaction of another human being which brings some much-needed levity into their lives.  With that said this is not a feel-good story nor should audiences expect a feel good ending when it is all said and done.

Johnson & Penn carry this film from start to finish as there are no other characters that are seen throughout the entire 100 100-minute run time of the movie. This film is the textbook definition of an indie project, the film is forced to focus on the more cinematic aspects of movie-making rather than the over-the-top spectacle of its big-budget counterparts.

 While it is refreshing to fall into a different world that Hollywood simply does not take very many chances with these days, the audience’s enjoyment of this movie is going to hinge on how they feel about the characters by the end of the movie.  There are no heroes in the story nor are there any villains. This is a movie that is all about The Human Condition and whether they identify with the characters or condemn the characters Will be a decision that is placed solely on The Viewer.

Moviegoers will see themselves experiencing a Rolodex of emotions which is Throughout this film and that alone achieves a lot more than the bigger projects of the industry.  Daddio is certainly a film that is worthy of checking out And letting audiences come to their interpretation.

3/5

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