Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Daddio’ on Netflix, a Contrived But Enjoyable Actor’s Duel Between Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn

By John Serba

Daddio (now connected Netflix) is what you telephone a bully ol’ two-hander, a single-setting play consisting of 1 drawn-out speech betwixt 2 people. Some see My Dinner pinch Andre to beryllium nan benchmark for this storytelling method, which ends up being a trial for each parties involved: Can nan filmmakers put together a compelling communicative pinch conscionable dialogue? Will nan actors make nan astir of nan aggravated attraction connected their performances? And will nan assemblage bent pinch nan minimalist building and position without being tempted to spell backmost to nan streaming paper and find thing pinch a small much beingness movement? Writer/director Christy Hall and stars Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson are hopefully up for nan task.

DADDIO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We ne'er study her name, but nan credits telephone her – I dunno, should we cringe astatine this? – Girlie (Johnson). She hops successful a cab astatine nan airport, destination Midtown New York City. It’s nighttime. The taxi is an old-school, battered yellowish cab, not a Tesla aliases a Subaru driven by immoderate Uber part-timer. No, down nan instrumentality is Clark (Penn), a weathered and lightly salty seen-it-all Noo Yawker type who heavy peppers his reside pinch profanity. He grumbles astatine different cabbie who honks astatine him, beefs astir nan Uber guys (“These f—in’ apps”), tells his passenger, “You f—in’ won, sweetheart, you did.” Ugh. Travel and nan airdrome suck nan life outta you and now you gotta perceive to Mr. Chatty Cabbie here, going connected astir really group ever look astatine their phones, truthful if you prime up your telephone you’re each other self-conscious astir looking astatine it alternatively of engaging successful speech you mightiness not want to have.

At slightest Clark isn’t boring, aliases excessively boorish. (OK, possibly he’s a small boorish. But it’s forgiveable.) He isn’t a talk-about-the-weather-or-that-new-Netflix-show benignant of guy. No, he waxes astir really an progressively cashless nine intends he gets smaller tips these days, really brackish and beverage utilized to beryllium rate – and really “Girlie” strikes him arsenic personification who tin “hold her own.” He’s correct astir that, because she doesn’t shrink distant from his crass tone, and if she’s initially a small irritated by his blahblahblah, she soon leans into it, realizing that this mightiness not beryllium nan accustomed dull speech betwixt 2 group who only look to person basal biology successful common. 

Now, I’m not saying Clark could beryllium nan prima interrogator for nan homicide squad, but he notices nan specifications (a assortment of cues show him that “Girlie” is coming location to New York alternatively than visiting) that let him to inquire applicable questions (“Where’d you spell for a visit?”). She shares that she visited her half-sister successful Oklahoma, wherever they grew up, which leads to nan communicative astir really she ended up successful New York and who her parents are and to nan “daddy issues” that Clark sniffs retired for illustration a supplier canine that conscionable recovered a ceramic of cocaine successful a heap of luggage. Meanwhile, she texts pinch an unnamed person who seems alternatively needy and hopeless to spot her – and past sends her a dick pic, because each he wants is sex, it seems. Clark sniffs that retired too, including nan small truth that her hopeless person is married. He knows these things, because he was nan feline who’s been joined and had things connected nan side. And now this speech is interesting, not, arsenic nan woman erstwhile put it, nan accustomed mindless getting-to-know you chitchat. 

Photo: ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Locke was much of a one-and-a-half-hander, since Tom Hardy spends nan full movie successful his car making telephone calls (of expanding urgency, I mightiness add).

Performance Worth Watching: In a movie that encourages a grade of performative acting, Johnson is simply a grade aliases 2 little performative than Penn. Johnson, victor of Saddest Eyes successful Hollywood 5 years running, makes nan astir of a movie heavy stocked pinch studious closeups. 

Memorable Dialogue: “Girlie” puts an separator connected her extremity of nan convo aft Clark makes a remark astir her “lifting her leg” connected things successful bid to declare her territory: “I don’t mind squatting.”

Sex and Skin: A fewer little over-the-shoulder shots of “Girlie”’s sexting yields female toplessness and schematic antheral underwearlessness.

Photo: Everett Collection

Our Take: How overmuch 1 enjoys Daddio depends wholly upon one’s desire to walk 100 minutes successful tight quarters pinch Penn and Johnson, to nan constituent wherever you tin almost smell their activity (and are thankful for nan infinitesimal erstwhile Clark shares a instrumentality of gum pinch his passenger). Save for a standout extended cameo successful Licorice Pizza, Penn’s output has been marginal for a decade, and it’s bully to spot 1 of nan astir aggravated actors successful nan crippled descend his teeth into a meaty, character-driven role, moreover if he leans into immoderate of nan contrivances of nan stagey setup. Quietly becoming 1 of nan upper-tier actors of her generation, Johnson avoids specified temptations, holding backmost a small more, playing her characteristic coy without cliche, and maintaining a tally of beardown performances including Cha Cha Real Smooth and The Lost Daughter (not to mention nan surely intentional drama of nan Madame Web press tour). 

You whitethorn request to forgive nan movie for its inclination to play retired successful a predictably quasi-literary fashion, wherever nan speech is overly heavy pinch metaphor and double-entendre, and nan characters are heavy fortified pinch irony. Clark comes disconnected for illustration nan overconfident older not-a-gentleman who apt masks immoderate insecurities, “Girlie” is surely much worldly than she seems, and erstwhile they talk astir nan “ones and zeros” of her computer-programming career, they’re evidently talking astir much than conscionable machine programming. But Penn and Johnson make judge these prickly, but endearing characters aren’t privy to elemental definitions, and while Hall’s book tends to consciousness much capital-W Written than natural, and not peculiarly profound successful its observations of Men And Women And What Makes Them Tick, nan 2 actors find capable pathos successful their exchanges to make nan movie feel, if not cathartic, astatine slightest moderately satisfying. 

Our Call: Daddio is nary game-changer, but a batch little has been done pinch a hellhole of a batch much than 1 setting, 2 talented actors and a rock-solid script. STREAM IT.

John Serba is simply a freelance writer and movie professional based successful Grand Rapids, Michigan.