Daddio

A woman rides a taxi from JFK back into Manhattan late at night. The driver is talkative, and over the journey the two of them discuss their lives, their relationships and their lies. Meanwhile messages keep arriving on her phone from a married man. The film is not interested in the ride. It is interested in what can be said to a stranger: because they know they will never meet again, both say things they have told nobody. The whole film rests on that contract. The form takes place almost entirely inside one cab; the camera moves between two faces and New York exists only through the glass. Christy Hall wrote and directed. It is her first feature, and the text was originally conceived as a play. Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn play the two characters; in practice this is a two-hander. Who it is for: viewers who like chamber films and drama built on conversation. Who it is not for: anyone expecting movement. The film stays in the same car for something over eighty minutes and some of the dialogue sounds written.