“You won’t like the way this story ends,” 15-year-old Wally (Mia Isaac) warns the audience at the beginning of the amazing honesty and humorous father-daughter drama “Do n’t Make Me Go.” Wally’s protective single father, Max (John Cho), learned that his headaches weren’t just from his restless teenager’s parenting struggles. With the diagnosis of cancer, he can live for a year. And instead of cleaning up his condition, Max packs up a wooden panel jeep and goes on an expedition with a heart. She escaped with Max’s best friend (Jemain Clement) when the girl was a toddler (Epps).
The setup is like a hazard sign that says “Caution: Treacle Ahead”. Still, director Hannah Marks and screenwriter Vera Herbert deviate from predictability. Life is unpredictable, and movies are betting big to emphasize that point. In one shocking scene, they set up an emotional showdown on Nude Beach, but neither character finds unnecessary relaxation interesting. (Thankfully, movie editor Paul Frank does.)
Cho and Isaac’s excellent performance reveals the gap between friendliness and intimacy. Two frivolous characters are more likely to expose their fragile belly to outsiders than each other. Herbert’s drooling, in-depth and realistic dialogue captures the journey of parents and children to learn to see each other as flawed people. At the push of Cho’s button, Max reveals that he was once a musician before he settled in the role of a risk-averse accountant when trying to provide decades of advice while driving. Max denies the accusations that Wally shattered his passion for her, but the movie is wise (and brutal) enough to stand by her when she’s right-she’s certainly a movie. Is in her early warning about the polarization finale of.
Don’t let me go
It is rated R for teenage drinking and abundant adult nudity. Execution time: 1 hour 49 minutes. Look at Amazon.
