"Don't Make Me Go" - Film Review
“You’re not going to like the way this story ends, but I think you’re gonna like this story,” Wally (Mia Isaac) says to open the film. It’s a play on the old adage about life being the journey, not the destination. Given that Don’t Make Me Go is a road trip flick, this is pretty accurate.
Wally’s entire life has been about just her and her father, Max (John Cho), living in California. She’s sixteen and going through the rebellious teenager phase. One night, Wally tells her dad she’s going to stay at her friend’s (Stefania LaVie Owen) house, but she’s actually going to a party at her crush’s (Otis Dhanji) house. Max finds out she’s lying and grounds her.
One week after the grounding, Max is supposed to go to his college reunion in Louisiana. He isn’t interested in attending at first, but once he’s diagnosed with a terminal disease, Max sees the reunion as an opportunity for Wally to finally meet her mother (Jen Van Epps). Max drags Wally along for the trip, but chooses to hide both his diagnosis and the true purpose of their cross-country road trip.
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There’s a graininess to the film that gives the impression of a home movie. It’s not a documentary or shot in the style of found footage, but the color and texture are reminiscent of a memory. Less movie, more evocation of the pain of teenagers and parents who love each other fully, but struggle to understand one another. The relationship between Wally and Max is genuine, and can morph from joy to confusion to anger to acceptance, all within the confines of a single conversation.
Don’t Make Me Go tugs on the heartstrings of anyone who has taken a long-distance road trip with a family member. The endless miles of highway, the home that’s built within the confines of the car, the sketchy gas station bathrooms, and the magic of existing in that liminal space. It feels so quintessentially America to drive thousands of miles, stopping at tacky tourist traps along the way, that I feel a sadness for anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to experience this odd source of joy.
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Max’s “The Passenger” by Iggy Pop karaoke performance is the pinnacle of the film. Throughout, there are themes of regret, and Max lets it slip that he used to think he had the potential to be a rockstar. This shocks Wally, because a rockstar is so at odds with the insurance salesman she has always known her father to be. Somewhere in a karaoke bar in America, Wally pushes her father onstage, and when he sings she gets a glimpse of what he was like when he was a few years older than she is now. It’s a bit like time travel, a peek into the life of a parent before that’s all they are known as. Like road trips, there’s something unexpectedly life-affirming about karaoke, and this scene captured a taste of it.
Don’t Make Me Go does veer into a sensationalist ending that is more in line with films like The Fault in Our Stars. It’s a disappointing choice that feels like tragedy for the sake of tragedy instead of the more refined journey that brought the audience to this destination. Ultimately, the beginning of the film really does set the stage for the ending, but there was hope it would subvert these expectations.
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