Don’t Make Me Go, 2022.
Directed by Hannah Marks.
Starring John Cho, Mia Isaac, Kaya Scodelario, Jade Harlow, Graham Vincent, Madeleine McCarthy, Quentin Warren, Josh Thomson, Otis Dhanji, Stefania LaVie Owen, Mitchell Hope, Jen Van Epps, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Tane Williams-Accra, Simon Mead, Claire Chitham, Hannah Marks, and Jemaine Clement.
SYNOPSIS:
When a single father to a teenage daughter learns that he has a fatal brain tumor, he takes her on a road trip to find the mother who abandoned her years before and to try to teach her everything she might need over the rest of her life.
It’s impossible to write about Don’t Make Me Go without vaguely touching on the ending. No, there won’t be spoilers here, but even the narration from Mia Isaac’s teenage Wally can’t help but warn viewers that while they will enjoy the journey portion of this story, they probably won’t like the ending. On the one hand, it’s a daring screenwriting choice from Vera Herbert, but once the finish plays out, it begins to feel like she and director Hannah Marks are desperately trying to convince anyone that will listen that it’s not a load of rushed, improbable, highly unbelievable nonsense despite being a clever and surprising idea in theory.
For further clarification on just how wild things get in these ten minutes (the story feels like it’s going to go on for roughly another 25 minutes before it abruptly comes to a twisty conclusion), the events that unfold had me researching medical conditions and more trying to get down to the bottom of what’s believable and what’s gloriously messy writing. Then I started searching inside for how it made me feel on an emotional level, which was also not much because it flies by at lightning speed that, even though everything that’s happening is comprehensive, it’s also challenging to process in that moment. So even if one wants the handwave away the believability of the ending, there is still no impact beyond surprise and shock. The attempts to justify the ending regarding how the characters grow also feel too rushed to be anything but hollow.
However, Don’t Make Me Go is worth checking out, considering it is nice to be caught off guard by a finale, even if one has reservations about multiple aspects. The single father-daughter dynamic between Wally and John Cho’s Max (Cho is phenomenal in the role, as is newcomer Mia Isaac) feels authentic and grounded. That’s doubly impressive here since there are numerous layers to peel back within this distant relationship, which the script movingly accomplishes through a road trip that rarely settles into a sequence that doesn’t provide more significant meaning to the bigger picture of who Max and Wally are as individuals.
Max learns that he has a fatal brain tumor that leaves him with two options: surgery within a week that he only has a 20% of surviving, or do nothing living with a one-year life expectancy. This sets up one of Don’t Make Me Go‘s central themes: probability and taking chances. It also puts Max into a midlife crisis panic, determined to correct the wrongs in Wally’s life, which involves disguising a college reunion road trip together as a secret effort to bring her to meet her birth mother (she cheated on Max and married one of his college friends). As a bonus, he will teach her how to drive along the way.
Of course, Max is also terrified that no one is going to be around to look after Wally when he is gone, so this may be his only shot at securing her some future guardianship during her completion of high school and whatever comes next (Wally wants to skip college and see the world, something Max disapproves of). Max also has a younger sexual partner (Kaya Scodelario) he sneaks away to see (telling Wally they are work meetings) with them playfully referring to each other as a booty call, but it’s also evident that he harbors deeper feelings that he is trying to let out as he leaves voicemails on the road.
The script focuses equally on Wally, who is in a boy-obsessed phase, pining over someone she finds attractive. Unfortunately, he is not interested in her unless there’s an opportunity for sex or pestering her for presumably explicit pictures when she is on the road with her father. He hangs around his ex-girlfriend an awful lot and is likely nowhere near as busy as he makes himself out to be. Wally also has a loyal and wonderful friend in Sandra (Stefania LaVie Owen), who is much more sexually open and willing to send nudes to her horny and bored partner stuck in a Jewish summer camp. Whether or not this behavior sends the wrong message to Wally, they have a sweet friendship without sanitizing teenage life.
Don’t Make Me Go takes all this baggage on the road with Max and Wally, as their personal lives are juxtaposed against one another, with father and daughter learning valuable lessons from one another (occasionally doing karaoke to Iggy Pop’s The Passenger, which will always be welcome in a movie). Again, the story is consistently engaging since every segment leads to discoveries regarding these characters. Short stretches that see Wally running off with new characters and partying all night open up a discussion about love and cheating that reverberates throughout the story in another way once more details emerge. At one point, Max takes Wally to play roulette; it also shouldn’t be a surprise that one is cynical towards gambling (for those that can do basic math, pay close attention to this scene).
As Max tries to cram in a lifetime of father-daughter experiences into a week on the road, the script does the same in its closing moments. But it’s also so fucking bold and conceptually brilliant that it needs to be seen. It is sudden and messy, but it could also be argued that life unfolds similarly. Mia Isaac has instantly become a rising talent to watch, and John Cho delivers emotionally raw top-tier career work.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
