Daddio has recently been released on Sky Now and released into cinemas on the 28th June. It's premise is an ageless, nameless character that hails a cab from JFK airport, and has a therapy session with a cab driver, Sean Penn. The session isn't even free either.
There are a few niggles that just really get me, one of the lead roles, played by Dakota Johnson explores briefly that she's a software engineer, and proceeds to mansplain binary to the cab driver, in a really futile attempt to explain truth tables. Quite honestly, this made the character sound really stupid, naive, and uneducated from the outset; in fact, the whole feeling I got about her character, was an awkward woman with serious daddy issues, and quite honestly, as a developer with logical experience, I genuinely have to question her job, and the company that hired her. Women with those sort of jobs have better critical thinking skills.
As for the setting, pretty much 95% of the film is set in a yellow cab, and Sean Penn's character is less annoying but still has his nuances, he's a cabbie complaining about the rise of apps, however, he's a smart guy, why not just pivot into those apps?
There are much better films that are wholly based in a car, Locke is a perfect example of great acting, on one simple premise of a story, Locke is by far a better version of this type of film.
This film really did a number on female software developers, it made them look naive, clueless and illogical, and giving as much as she shared her whole life story, but refused to share her age, you really have to question her ability for logic and reason.
Dakotas character was confusing, is she a naive girl trying to navigate life? Or an intelligent woman navigating a professional career? Neither were convincing, she was plain, forgettable, and undersold with poor character building, and vail plot lines. Dakota is a great actress, and I suspect that she needs to break free from the shackles and bondage of Mr Gray to really excel her career.
I think the film was trying to be smarter than it was, and it just wasn't that smart at all, it was just creepy, in a way that only Hollywood does well.
The way the cab driver lingered at the end was just weird. It was neither here or there.
Daddio is a film that for me had one great actor, delivering a really poor script, and the rest was just as boring as a cab drive from the airport. When it comes to exploring life issues in a feature length film in a vehicle, Locke does it better.
If you want a high octane thrilling cab ride, watch Taxi Driver from 1976.
