‘Daddio’: Cabbies Can Be Better Than Psychiatrists

Sean Penn in “Daddio." (Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics)

R | 1h 40m | Drama | June 28, 2024

“Daddio” is basically the story of one woman’s overly long, late night, therapeutic cab ride from JFK airport to New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, which is about 10 minutes west of Times Square.

Dakota Johnson (”Fifty Shades of Grey“) plays a young woman returning to New York City after a trip home to visit her estranged sister in Oklahoma. Sean Penn plays the blue-streak-talking cabbie who picks her up at the airport. And that’s it. That’s the entire enchilada right there. First-time director Christy Hall adapted the film from her own play, and Ms. Johnson produced.

Penn

Everyone knows Dakota Johnson these days, but Gen Z is mostly clueless as to just how huge Sean Penn was in the 1980s and ‘90s—an electrifying, gruff, chain-smoking, antisocial antidote to the yuppified Brat Pack, and the direct heir to the method-acting crowns of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

Penn hasn’t been this charming ... maybe ever? Clark, the cheerfully know-it-all cabbie with the sailor’s vocabulary, engages Ms. Johnson’s Girlie in a prolonged, provocative (invasive, actually), and politically incorrect conversation, and is then given pause when he discovers she can dish it out in equal measure.

Their playful banter eventually leads to more substantial issues, until eventually, these two strangers in the night end up confessing the kind of deep, dark secrets you'll only tell a stranger you know you’ll never see again. Which makes “Daddio” a sort of non-romantic, age-inappropriate “Before Sunrise.” It functions, even in cinematic mode, as a two-person play.

Breaking It Down

I live in Hell’s Kitchen and get stuck in cabs with loquacious cabbies all the time, so this was not escapism for me whatsoever; this is my life. As the saying goes: “New York is a fabulous place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live here.”

In New York (and everywhere), there are three professions that psychology and psychiatry are basically glorified forms of: 1) bartending 2) personal training, and 3) cab-driving. If you’re bartending properly, your late-night customer is metaphorically lying across the Freudian couch of three bar stools, pouring his or her heart out about their problems (and tips out of their wallet). In personal training, your client is lying on the Freudian couch of the  bench-press bench, pouring his or her heart out (and losing weight at the same time. If they can’t do both simultaneously, you’re fired).

The taxi-cab environment prompts a lot of confessionals too; that plexiglass partition with the little sliding window can subconsciously feel very familiar to Catholics.

Girlie (Dakota Johnson) and Clark (Sean Penn), in “Daddio." (Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics)

‘Daddio’

So it’s basically a one-hour-and-40-minute cab ride, stuck in traffic, talking about life and problems. Santa Monica-born Mr. Penn does a passable if inconsistent New York accent. Ms. Johnson is cute. So there’s that. And for the last 10 minutes, the film is adorable. It almost made the whole thing worthwhile. It gives one hope for humanity.

Girlie (Dakota Johnson, who also produced this film), in “Daddio." (Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics)

You’ve heard the synopsis, so here’s the analysis: Things have evolved in society to the point where Americans, if they hang out for more than 10 minutes and have even a modicum of friendly chemistry, immediately become, more or less, family. It’s Marshall McLuhan’s global village manifested.

Via social media, cell phones, film, Oprah, Jerry Springer, Howard Stern, popular music, stand-up comedy, and, it must be said—porn—Americans have completely lost their filters and their buffer zones, and there’s no longer such a thing as “TMI” (too much information). Within five minutes, Americans can easily be sharing graphic descriptions of their sex lives and think nothing of it (the currently viral “Hawk Tuah” girl being an absolutely perfect example of this). It’s the new norm. This is not news to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, not even for Gen X, particularly. But for Boomers, this still gives one pause.

And so the father-aged cabbie’s expletive-laden conversation with the nubile young beauty walks a thin line between avuncular and creepy for an uncomfortable half hour. And all the while she’s on the phone with her (daddy-issues-spawned) older married-man “boyfriend,” who’s sexting her porn stuff. And she sexts some porn things back.

Girlie (Dakota Johnson) on the phone with her too-old sugar daddy, in “Daddio." (Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics)

And so, she and cabbie Vinny (who’s really named Clark, but thinks of himself more as a Vinny, but, actually, really likes the name Mikey for himself) talk, and talk, and talk, and make up a little game about who can say the most personal things; things that visibly emotionally move them.

And it’s a highly productive therapy session for her. Which you know that she deeply grasps the value of. I won’t reveal how.

And that’s it. And that’s nice.

But, call me old-fashioned—I just don’t want to see what kind of photo her boyfriend is sexting (and you do see it; should have slapped an X-rating on this), and I don’t want to hear 800 f-bombs from the both of them. And I don’t wanna drive up 10th avenue and hang a right on 44th Street—I do that constantly.

Girlie (Dakota Johnson) gets home safe, in “Daddio." (Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics)

But New York is raw and exciting, and while Hell’s Kitchen couldn’t exactly be described as exotic, other Manhattan neighborhoods can. I forget sometimes. Living so close to Times Square, I could Airbnb my apartment and charge $1,000 a night on New Year’s Eve. And so, if New York is still an exotic concept for you, and you fancy a nitty-gritty conversation where a sweet young woman finds a world-weary, wise, kindly cabbie, who’s only mildly disgusting and who imparts to her a great gift of listening and understanding that will make her life going forward much more bearable—“Daddio” is a sweet little film.

Promotional poster for “Daddio." (Phedon Papamichael/Sony Pictures Classics)

‘Daddio’ Director: Christy Hall Starring: Sean Penn, Dakota Johnson MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes Release Date: June 28, 2024 Rating: 2 1/2 stars out of 5

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